
Class 3£iM£ 
Bonk Nte l S 
Copyright N° 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 




J&'^iru as^LrC^y 



THE 



Young People's Wesley 

By w. Mcdonald 

WITH AN INTRODUCTION 

By BISHOP W. F. MALLALIEU, D.D. 



'The best of all is, God is with us." — Wesley 




NEW YORK: EATON & MAINS 

CINCINNATI : JENNINGS & PYE 

1901 



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THE LIBRARY OF 

CONGRESS, 
Two Copita Received 

AUG. 31 1901 

r\ Copyright entry 
CLASS *3-XXa No. 

/^3£f 

C0PY B. 



Copyright by 

EATON & MAINS, 

1902. 






% 



AFFECTIONATELY 

BeDtcatefc 

TO 

ALL THE MEMBERS OF JOHN WESLEY'S 

WIDELY EXTENDED 

AND CONSTANTLY INCREASING 

PARISH. 



PREFACE. 



My sole object in the preparation of this 
little volume has been to meet what I regard 
as a real want — a Life of John Wesley which 
shall include all the essential facts in his re- 
markable career, presented in such a compre- 
hensive form as to be quickly read and easily 
remembered by all; not so expensive as to be 
beyond the reach of those of the most limited 
means, and not so large as to require much 
time, even of the most busy worker, to master 
its contents. I have sought to give my readers 
a faithful view of the man — his origin, early 
life, conversion, marvelous ministry, what he 
did, how he did it, the doctrines he preached, 
the persecutions he encountered, and his tri- 
umphant end. 

This revised and enlarged edition will be 
found to contain many interesting features 
not found in the first edition. I have added, 
also, a brief account of the introduction of 
Methodism into America, as well as John Wes- 
ley's influence at the opening of the twentieth 
century. For this interesting chapter I am 
indebted to Rev. W. H. Meredith, of the New 
England Conference, who kindly consented to 



6 preface. 

assist me, in view of the pressure to get the 
manuscript ready on time. 

It will appear, from all that has been said, 
that Mr. Wesley was the most remarkable 
character of the last century; and the influ- 
ence of his life is more potent for good to-day 
than ever before, and must continue to aug- 
ment — if his followers are true to their trust 
— till the end of time. 

William McDonald. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

Preface, 5 

Introduction, 9 

CHAPTER. 

I. Born in Troublous Times, . . .13 
II. The Wesley Family, .... 20 

III. Wesley's Early Life, . . . .32 

IV. Epworth Rappings, 41 

V. Origin of the Holy Club, . . .49 

VI. Wesley in America, . . . .58 

VII. Wesley's Religious Experience, . . 71 

VIII. Wesley's Multiplied Labors, . . 83 

IX. Wesley's Domestic Relations, . . 93 

X. Wesley's Persecutions, . . . .101 

XI. Wesley and His Theology, . . . 115 

XII. Wesley as a Man, 132 

XIII. Wesley as a Preacher, .... 136 

XIV. Wesley as a Reformer, . . . .144 
XV. Wesley and American Methodism Prior 

to 1766, 153 

XVI. Wesley and American Methodism, . 161 
XVII. Wesley Approaching the Close of Life, 173 
XVIII. Wesley and His Triumphant Death, . 179 
XIX. Wesley's Character as Estimated by 

Unbiased Judges, 185 

XX. The Greater Wesley of the Opening 

Century, 193 

Conclusion, 203 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Portrait or John Wesley, . . Frontispiece 

FACING 
PAGE 

An Unusual View of the Epworth Rectory, 16 
The Wesleyan Memorial Church, Epworth, 

England, 32 

Jeffrey's Attic Room, Whence the Mysterious 

Noises Came, 48 

Wesley's Armchair, ...... 64 

Wesley's Clock, . . . . . . .96 

Samuel Wesley's Grave, upon Which John 

Preached His Famous Sermon, . . . 112 

Wesley's Teapot. Wesley's Bible and Case, . 144 
St. Andrew's Church at Epworth. Epworth 

Memorial Church at Cleveland, O., . . 160 

The Room in Which Wesley Died, . . . 176 

John Wesley's Grave, 192 



INTRODUCTION. 



What, another Life of John Wesley! Why 
not? This time a "Young People's Wesley." 
If ever the common people had an interest 
in any man, living or dead, that man is John 
Wesley. It is true that we already have many 
"Lives" of this remarkable man. They range 
from the massive volumes of Tyerman down 
to the booklet of a few pages. The truth 
abides that of making many books there is no 
end, and so more Lives of Wesley will be writ- 
ten from time to time as the years and cen- 
turies come and go. The reason of this is that 
John Wesley is one of the greatest men of 
all the Christian centuries. When we under- 
take to enumerate the five greatest men that 
the English race has ever produced we must of 
necessity include the name of John Wesley. 
As the distance increases between the present 
time and the days of his protracted activity 
the grander does he appear. The majority of 
the men of his day and generation did not 
comprehend him. They could not, for the plan 
of his aspirations and achievements was far 
above their thinking or living. They did not 
realize his greatness; they did not foresee the 



io UntroDuction. 

influence he was destined to exert on all fu- 
ture generations. He has been dead more than 
a hundred years, and yet to-day he is larger, 
vaster, and more powerful in the wide realm 
of intellectual and spiritual activities than 
he was at any time during his long and vig- 
orous life. So far as we can judge, this de- 
velopment of the stature of this wonderful 
man will continue for ages. 

Remember that John Wesley was well bred. 
On both his father's and mother's side he in- 
herited the qualities of the best blood of Eng- 
land. So far as we know, his ancestry was 
purely Saxon, and of the best type of English- 
Saxon lineage. On sea or land, in military 
affairs, as a diplomat or statesman, he would 
have been eminent. He was one of the most 
thorough and comprehensive scholars of his 
century. He was fully abreast of his times in 
all matters of natural science; he was a lin- 
guist of rare excellency; he was a metaphysi- 
cian; he was at home in philosophy. He had 
the rare ability of using all he knew for the 
best and highest purposes. He was a real 
genius, not a crank. A genius utilizes en- 
vironment; a genius dominates circum- 
stances; a genius makes old things new; 
a genius pioneers mankind in its career 
of progress. Because of these qualities 
and characteristics, men will never tire of 
reading the life, and men will never stop 



1Tntro£>uctiom 11 

writing the life, of this man. Born in the 
humble rectory of Epworth, in the midst of 
the fens of Lincolnshire, his name and fame 
reach to the ends of the earth. Men know him 
not for what he might have been, but for what 
be was — a friend of all, and a prophet of God. 

Just now when the common people are more 
and more educated, and nearly all of them are 
readers of books, and many of them interested 
in good books, it is important that we have a 
Life of Wesley that is perfectly adapted to 
those who are not critical historical students, 
but rather to those who want the gist of 
things, who want the substantial and essential 
facts in compressed shape. 

It is believed that this volume will meet all 
these requirements, and that a careful perusal 
of its pages will put any person of ordinary 
intelligence in very close touch with one of 
the greatest religious and social reformers the 
world has ever known. This volume is one 
that might be read with great profit by every 
member of our Church, and by all Methodists 
everywhere. Especially would its reading help 
all our young people, and particularly the mem- 
bers of our Epworth League. It is certain that 
its reading would give them clear, definite, and 
correct views of the life and work of the found- 
er of Methodism; and such views would be 
sure to lead to a more healthful and vigorous 
personal religious experience, and would en- 



12 ITntroDuction. 

courage all heroic aspirations for the highest 
attainments in holy living, and excite the most 
ardent and persistent efforts for the salvation 
of all men. John Wesley knew that human- 
ity had been redeemed by the sufferings and 
death of the Lord Jesus Christ. He knew 
that every redeemed soul might be saved. He 
knew that it was his business to bring re- 
deemed humanity to the feet of its Redeemer. 
Would that all his followers might share in 
this threefold knowledge; and that by the 
reading of this volume all might be led to con- 
secrate themselves to the accomplishment of 
the supremely glorious task at which John 
Wesley wrought until he ceased at once to 
work and live. O, that all Methodists might 
follow John Wesley even as he followed 
Christ! W. F. Mallalieu. 

Auburndale, Mass., April 8, 1901. 



The Young People's Wesley. 



CHAPTER I. 

BORN IN TROUBLOUS TIMES. 

During the latter part of the seventeenth 
and the first part of the eighteenth century 
England was the theater of stirring events. 
War was sounding its clarion notes through 
the land. Marlborough had achieved a series 
of brilliant victories on the Continent, which 
had filled and fired the national heart with the 
spirit of military glory. 

The English, at that time, had an instinc- 
tive horror of popery and power. James II, 
cruel, arbitrary, and oppressive, had been 
hurled from the throne as a plotting papal 
tyrant, and his grandson, Charles Edward, 
known as the Pretender, was making every 
possible effort to regain the throne and to sub- 
ject the people to absolute despotism. To add 
to their dismay, the fleets of France and Spain 
were hovering along the English coast, ready, 
at any favorable moment, to pounce upon her. 
The means of public communication by rail- 



14 Zbc loung people's Wesley 

road and telegraph were unknown. There 
were few mails, and reliable information could 
not be readily or safely obtained. Under these 
circumstances it is not surprising that strange 
and exaggerated reports should have kept the 
public mind in a state of great excitement and 
general consternation. 

It was also, pre-eminently, an infidel age. 
Disrespect for the Bible and the Christian re- 
ligion, prevailed among all classes. Hobbes, 
with his scorpion tongue; Toland, with his 
papal-poisoned heart; Tindal, with his in- 
fidel dagger concealed under a cloak of min- 
gled popery and Protestantism; Collins, with 
a heart full of deadly hate for Christianity; 
Chubb, with his deistical insidiousness ; and 
Shaftesbury, with his platonic skepticism, 
hurled by wit and sarcasm — these, with their 
corrupt associates, made that the infidel age 
of the world. Christianity was everywhere 
held up to public reprobation and scorn. 

It is true that Steele, Addison, Berkeley, 
Samuel Clarke, and Johnson exposed the fol- 
lies and sins of the times, but the character 
of these efforts was generally more humorous 
and sarcastic than serious. Occasionally they 
gave a sober rebuke of the religion of the day. 
Berkeley attacked, with his keen logic and 
finished style, the skeptical opinions which pre- 
vailed. Most of his articles were on the sub- 
ject of "Free Thinking." Johnson, the great 



JBorn in troublous crimes, 15 

moralist, stood up, it is said, "a great giant 
to battle, with both hands against all error 
in religion, whether in high places or low." 

These men, and Young, with his vast re- 
ligious pretentiousness, are said to have walked 
in the garments of literary and social chastity ; 
but Swift, greater intellectually than any of 
them, and a high church dignitary to boot, 
would have disgraced the license of the "Merry 
Monarch's" court and outdone it in profanity. 
Even Dryden made the literature of Charles 
IPs age infamous for all time. 

"Licentiousness was the open and shameless 
profession of the higher classes in the days of 
Charles, and in the time of Anne it still 
festered under the surface. Gambling was an 
almost universal practice among men and 
women alike. Lords and ladies were skilled 
in knavery; disgrace was not in cheating, but 
in being cheated. Both sexes were given to 
profanity and drunkenness. Sarah Jennings, 
Duchess of Marlborough, could swear more 
bravely than her husband could fight. The 
wages of the poor were spent in guzzling beer, 
in wakes and fairs, badger-baiting and cock- 
fighting."* And yet the reign of Anne claims 
to have been the golden age of English liter- 
ature. It did show a polish on the surface, 
but within it was "full of corruption and dead 
men's bones." 

* Some Heretics of Yesterday, pp. 294, 295. 



16 Zhc l^oung peopled Wesley 

Added to this, the Church, which should 
have been the light of the world, was in a most 
deplorable state. Irreligion and spiritual in- 
difference had taken possession of priest and 
people, and ministers were sleeping over the 
threatened ruins of the Church, and, in too 
many instances, were hastening, by their open 
infidelity, the day of its ruin. The Established 
Church overtopped everything. She possessed 
great power and little piety. Her sacerdotal 
robes had been substituted for the garments 
of holiness ; her Prayer Book had extinguished 
those earnest, spontaneous soul-breathings 
which bring the burdened heart into sympa- 
thetic union with the sympathizing Saviour. 
Spirituality had well-nigh found a grave, 
from which it was feared there would be no 
resurrection. Isaac Taylor says : "The Church 
had become an ecclesiastical system, under 
which the people of England had lapsed into 
heathenism;" and "Nonconformity had lapsed 
into indifference, and was rapidly in a course 
to be found nowhere but in books." In France 
hot-headed, rationalistic infidelity was invad- 
ing the strongholds of the Reformation, and 
French philosophers were spreading moral con- 
tagion through Europe, which resulted in the 
French Revolution. The only thing which 
saved England from the same catastrophe was 
the sudden rise of Methodism, which, as one 
writer says, "laid hold of the lower classes and 




AN UNUSUAL VIEW OF THE EPWORTH RECTORY.1 



3Born in {Troublous XLimes. 17 

converted them before they were ripe for ex- 
plosion." When preachers of the Gospel cel- 
ebrated holy communion and preached to a 
handful of hearers on Sabbath morning, and 
devoted the afternoon to card-playing, and the 
rest of the week to hunting foxes, what else 
could have been expected? It is doubtful if 
in any period of the history of the Church the 
outlook had been darker. 

The North British Review says : "Never has 
a century risen on Christian England so void 
of soul and faith; it rose a sunless dawn fol- 
lowing a dewless night. The Puritans were 
buried, and the Methodists were not born." 
The Bishop of Lichfield said, in a sermon: 
"The Lord's day now is the devil's market 
day. More lewdness, more drunkenness, 
more quarrels and murders, more sin is 
conceived and committed, than on all the 
other days of the week. Strong drink has 
become the epidemic distemper of the city of 
London. Sin in general has become so har- 
dened and rampant that immoralities are de- 
fended, yea, justified, on principle. Every 
kind of sin has found a writer to teach and 
vindicate it." 

"The philosopher of the age was Boling- 
broke ; the moralist was Addison ; the minstrel 
was Pope; and the preacher was Atterbury. 
The world had an idle, discontented look of a 
morning after some mad holiday." 



18 Zbe !0oun0 people's WLe&ley. 

Over this state of moral and religious apos- 
tasy a few were found who made sad and 
bitter lamentations. Bishop Burnet was "filled 
with sad thoughts." "The clergy," he said, 
"were under more contempt than those of any 
other Church in Europe; for they were much 
more remiss in their labors and least severe 
in their lives. I cannot look on," he says, 
"without the deepest concern, when I see im- 
minent ruin hanging over the Church, and, 
by consequence, over the Reformation. The 
outward state of things is black enough, God 
knows, but that which heightens my fears 
arises chiefly from the inward state into which 
we are fallen." 

Bishop Gibson gives a heart-saddening view 
of the matter: "Profaneness and iniquity are 
grown bold and open." Bishop Butler declared 
the Church to be "only a subject of mirth and 
ridicule." Guyes, a Nonconformist divine, 
says that "preacher and people were content 
to lay Christ aside." Hurrian, another Dis- 
senter, sees "faith, joy, and Christian zeal 
under a thick cloud." Bishop Taylor declares 
that "the spirit was grieved and offended by 
the abominable corruption that abounded;" 
while good Dr. Watts sings sadly of the "poor 
dying rate" at which the friends of Jesus 
lived, saying: "I am well satisfied that the 
great and general reason of this is the decay 
of vital religion in the hearts and lives of men, 



JBorn in {Troublous TLimee. id 

and the little success that the administration 
of the Gospel has made of late in the con- 
version of sinners to holiness." 

This was the state of the English Church, 
and of Dissenters as well, at the opening of 
the eighteenth century. And well it might be 
when, as has been said, the philosopher of the 
age was Bolingbroke, the moralist was Addi- 
son, the minstrel w.as Pope, and the preacher 
was Atterbury. But when darkness seems most 
dense the day-star of hope is near to rising. 

On the 17th of June, 1703, was born in the 
obscure parish at Epworth, of Samuel and Su- 
sannah Wesley, John Wesley, the subjecjt of 
this sketch. He was one of nineteen children. 
The names of fifteen have been recorded; the 
others, no doubt, died in infancy. Of these 
fifteen, John was the twelfth. He was born in 
the third year of the eighteenth century. His 
long life of eighty-eight years covered eleven 
of the twelve years of Queen Anne's reign, 
thirteen of that of George I, thirty-three of 
George JI, and more than thirty of George III. 
This remarkable child was to more than re- 
vive the dead embers of the Reformation; he 
was chosen of God to inaugurate a spiritual 
movement which was to fill the world with the 
spirit of holy being and doing, and bring to 
the people ransomed by Jesus, in every clime 
and of every race, "freedom to worship God." 



CHAPTER II. 

THE WESLEY FAMILY. 

Samuel Wesley, father of John, was for 
forty years rector of Epworth Parish. He was 
an honest, conscientious, stern old English- 
man; a firmer never clung to the mane of the 
British lion. He was the son of John Wesley, 
a Dissenting minister, who enjoyed, for a 
time, all the rights of churchmen. But, after 
the death of Cromwell, Charles II, whom the 
Dissenters had aided in restoring to the throne, 
and who had promised them toleration and 
liberty of conscience, on his return, finding 
the Church party in the ascendency, violated 
his pledge and approved of the most cruel and 
oppressive laws passed by Parliament against 
Dissenters. By one of these inhuman acts 
more than two thousand ministers, and among 
them many of the most pious, useful, learned, 
and conscientious in the land, were deprived of 
their places in the Church, of their homes and 
support, and were compelled to wander home- 
less and friendless, without being allowed to 
remain anywhere, until they found rest in the 
grave. 

"Stopping the mouths of these faithful 



Gbe meslev family. 21 

men," says Dr. Adam Clarke, "was a general 
curse to the nation. A torrent of iniquity, 
deep, rapid, and strong, deluged the whole 
land, and swept away godliness and vital re- 
ligion from the kingdom. The king had no 
religion, either in power or in form, though 
a papist at heart. He was the most worthless 
that ever sat on a British throne, and profli- 
gate beyond all measure, without a single good 
quality to redeem his numerous bad ones; and 
Church and State joined hand in hand in per- 
secution and intolerance. Since those bar- 
barous and iniquitous times, what hath God 
wrought !"* 

Mr. Wesley had been for some years pastor 
of Whitchurch, Dorchestershire, and was 
greatly beloved by his people. But the law 
forbade anyone attending a place of worship 
conducted by Dissenters. Whoever was found 
in such an assembly was tried by a judge with- 
out a jury, and for the third offense was sen- 
tenced to transportation beyond the seas for 
seven years; and if the offender returned to 
his home before the seven years expired he was 
liable to capital punishment. This was an 
example of refined cruelty. The minister who 
had grown gray in the service of his Lord, 
whose annual income was barely sufficient to 
meet the pressing needs of his family, was 
turned adrift upon the world without support, 
* Wesley Family, vol. i, p. 65. 



22 zbc 10oung peopled Wesles. 

and the poor man was not permitted to live 
within five miles of his charge, nor of any- 
other which he might have formerly served. 
As Mr. Wesley could not teach, or preach, or 
hold private meetings, he, for a time, turned 
his attention to the practice of medicine for 
the support of his family. 

He bade his weeping church adieu, and re- 
moved to Melcomb, a town some twenty miles 
away. He had preached for a time in Mel- 
comb before he became vicar of Whitchurch, 
and hoped to find there a quiet retreat and 
sympathizing friends. But his family was 
scarcely settled when an order came prohib- 
iting his settlement there, and fining a good 
lady twenty pounds for receiving him into her 
house. Driven from Melcomb, he sought shel- 
ter in Preston, by invitation of a kind friend, 
who offered him free rent. Then came the 
passage of what was known as the "five-mile 
act," which required that Dissenting ministers 
should not reside within five miles of an in- 
corporated town. Preston, though not an in- 
corporated town, was within five miles of one. 
Finding no place for rest from the relentless 
persecution of the Established Church — per- 
secution as cruel as Rome ev.er inflicted, save 
the death penalty, and that was imposed under 
certain conditions — he concluded to leave his 
home for a time and retire to some obscure 
village until he could, by prayer and delibera- 



Cbe Wesley 3famfl£. 23 

tion, determine what to do. Here, alone with 
God, his decision was made. He fully decided 
that he could not, with a good conscience, obey 
the law of Conformity, as it was called. Con- 
formity was to him apostasy. 

Mr. Wesley determined to remove to some 
place in South America, and, if not there, 
to Maryland. He hoped, by so doing, to find 
a quiet home for himself and family. In 
Maryland, settled and ruled by Catholics, he 
could enjoy freedom to worship God, but not 
in oppressive, Protestant England, just res- 
cued from the domination of Rome. 

No one can adequately comprehend how such 
a removal would have affected the religious 
life of the world. But the good man finally 
determined to abandon his plan and remain 
in his native land and do the best he could. 
God, without doubt, was in that decision. But 
he felt that God had called him to preach, and 
preach he would. 

In spite of every precaution, he was fre- 
quently interrupted, suffering imprisonment 
for months together, and at four different 
times within a few years. At last, by frequent 
imprisonment, poverty, and failing health, the 
poor man's crushed spirit could stand it no 
longer, and he died at the early age of forty- 
two years, leaving wife and children homeless 
and helpless. All this the grandfather of John 
Wesley endured for conscience' sake. He was 



24 Gbe l^ouna peopled Wesley 

a graduate of Oxford; as a classical scholar 
he had few equals — a man of deep piety and 
distinguished talents. His father, Barthol- 
omew Wesley, had early dedicated his son to 
the Gospel ministry, and God seems to have 
accepted the dedication. And because he con- 
scientiously objected to conducting public 
worship strictly according to the Prayer Book, 
the unchristian laws regarding Conformity 
were enforced, and the tears, blood, and suffer- 
ing which befell those godly men lay at the 
door of the Established Church. Cruel perse- 
cution marked this man for its prey even after 
death. When his inanimate body, followed by 
weeping wife, little children, and sympathiz- 
ing neighbors, was borne on a bier to the gates 
of the consecrated burial place of Preston, 
the gates were closed against it by order of 
the minister of the Established Church. So 
the remains of this good and great man were 
deposited in an unknown and unmarked grave. 
Samuel Wesley was sixteen years old at the 
time of his father's death. He had been under 
the careful tuition of his learned father, and 
under such training his mind had become high- 
ly educated for one of his years. He had a 
genius for poetry, and possessed a highly sensi- 
tive nature. His associations with Dissenters 
were not the most favorable, and what he saw 
and heard at the meetings of what was known 
as the "Calf's Head Club" disgusted him. 



Gbe meslev ffamtlB. 25 

Added to this, he was not pleased with the 
school of the Dissenters in which he was being 
educated, and, being not a little impulsive and 
hasty in his decisions, he concluded that all 
Dissenters were of the same character. He 
determined to examine the grounds of Dissent 
and Conformity, and, as might be expected, 
being more or less controlled by youthful prej- 
udice, he concluded to renounce his former 
opinions and the faith of ancestors, and unite 
with the Established Church. And, as is often 
the case in such sudden changes, he did not 
stop until he had become a high churchman. 
But, notwithstanding his change, he had too 
much good practical common sense to carry out 
his theory. While it is true that he became a 
high Tory, he possessed too much benevolence, 
and too nice a sense of right, to give counte- 
nance to arbitrary power, such as had been 
exercised toward his ancestors. He could not 
forget what his honored father had suffered 
at the hands of churchmen. 

Having become a churchman, at the age of 
sixteen he left his home for Oxford University. 
He traveled all the distance on foot, with only 
about thirteen dollars in his pocket and with 
no hopeful outlook for further supplies. And 
from that time until he graduated he received 
from his friends but a single crown ($1.20). 
But, Yankeelike, he made everything turn to 
his advantage. Being a bright scholar, he 



26 Gbe 10oun0 ipeople's Wieelc^ 

composed college exercises for those students 
who, it is said, "had more money than brains ;" 
he read over lessons for those who were too 
lazy to study, and gave instruction to such as 
were dull of apprehension. He wrote also for 
the press, and left the university, at the close, 
with four times as much money as he had when 
he entered. 

After his graduation he went to London and 
was ordained. He served one year as curate 
in London, one year as chaplain on shipboard, 
and two years more as curate in London. 

When James II was expelled, and William 
and Mary were called to the throne, Mr. Wes- 
ley was the first man to write in their defense. 
For this timely support Queen Mary appointed 
him rector of Epworth, Lincolnshire, which 
position he held to the end of his life. The vil- 
lage was far from being attractive, and the 
people were generally hard cases; but he was 
a faithful pastor there for forty years. He was 
always poor, but always honest. He was fre- 
quently in jail for debt, and as often relieved 
by donations from the Duke of Buckingham, 
the Archbishop of York, the queen, and others. 
"No man," he says, "has worked truer for 
bread than I have done, and no one has fared 
harder." 

In politics Mr. Wesley was no conservative. 
Whatever he did, he did with his might. He 
espoused the cause of William, Prince of 



Orange, regarding him as a perfect antitype 
of Job's war horse, and for such heroic sup- 
port he received the anathemas of his parish- 
ioners; they stabbed his cow, cut off his dog's 
legs, burned his flax, and twice fired his house. 
But still he had the courage of his convictions. 
As an example of his moral courage the fol- 
lowing story is told of him: Mr. Wesley was 
in a London coffee house taking refreshments. 
A colonel of the guards, near by, was uttering 
fearful oaths. Wesley, a young man, was 
greatly moved, and felt that a rebuke was de- 
manded. He called the waiter to bring him a 
glass of water. He did so, and in a loud, clear 
voice Wesley said, "Carry this to that young 
man in the red coat, and request him to wash 
his mouth after his oaths." The colonel heard 
him, became much enraged, and made a bold at- 
tempt to rush upon his reprover. His compan- 
ion interfered, saying, "Nay, colonel, you gave 
the first offense. You see, the gentleman is a 
clergyman." The colonel subsided, but did 
not forget the reproof. Years after he met 
Mr. Wesley in St. James Park, and said to 
him : "Since that time, sir, thank God ! I have 
feared an oath and everything that is offensive 
to the Divine Majesty. I cannot refrain from 
expressing my gratitude to God and to you." 
Samuel Wesley possessed many virtues, with 
some faults. He was often impetuous, hasty, 
and sometimes rash. In the heat of contro- 



28 abe loung peopled me&lev. 

versy, in which he at times engaged, he was 
often unsparing in his invectives. But this 
must be set down, in part, to the spirit of the 
time. He was a faithful pastor and a fine 
oriental scholar. Mr. Tyerman says, "He 
was learned, laborious, and godly." He had 
the reputation of being a good poet, a fair 
commentator, and an able miscellaneous 
writer. 

Susannah Wesley. 

Susannah Wesley, mother of John Wesley, 
was in most respects the perfect antipode of 
her husband. She is said by some to have 
been beautiful, and by all to have been devout, 
energetic, and intelligent. She had mastered 
the Greek, Latin, and French languages, and 
was the mother of nineteen children. And 
such a mother, for the careful, wise, religious 
training of her children, modern times has 
never furnished a superior. 

She was the daughter of Dr. Samuel 
Annesley, one of the many sufferers under the 
cruel law of Nonconformity; but he does not 
seem to have suffered as severely as John 
Wesley, whose fate we have recorded. It must 
have been that he, for some cause, was more 
fortunate than his contemporary. Miss Annes- 
ley became the wife of Samuel Wesley at 
the age of nineteen years. It seems quite re- 
markable that Samuel Wesley and his wife 



Cbe meeleu ffamtlB. 29 

should have both been connected with Dis- 
senters, and their parents, on both sides, should 
have suffered by the oppression of the Estab- 
lished Church, and that both of them, while 
young, should have left the Dissenters and 
joined the Establishment. It could not have 
been the result of careful investigation, but, 
more likely, of youthful prejudice. 

Mrs. Wesley was a noble woman. Of her 
Dr. Adam Clarke says: "Such a woman, take 
her all in all, I have never read of, nor with 
her equal have I been acquainted. Many 
daughters have done virtuously, but Susannah 
Wesley has excelled them all." She was the 
sole instructor of her numerous family, "and 
such a family," continues Dr. Clarke, "I have 
never read of, heard of, or known; nor since 
the days of Abraham and Sarah, Joseph and 
Mary of Nazareth, has there been a family to 
which the human race has been more in debt." 

Many have supposed that Samuel Wesley 
was a sour and disagreeable husband. But he 
was one of the kindest of husbands, and his 
children are said to have "idolized" him. His 
affection for his wife is seen in a portrait he 
gives of her, a few years after their marriage, 
in his Life of Christ, in verse : 

"She graced my humble roof, and blest my life ; 
Blest me by a far greater name than wife ; 
Yet still I bore an undisputed sway, 
Nor was 't her task, but pleasure, to obey. 



30 Gbe l^oung freople's Wieelcv. 

Scarce thought, much less could act what I denied, 
In our lone home there was no room for pride. 
Nor did I e'er direct what still was right ; 
She studied my convenience and delight ; 
Nor did I for her care ungrateful prove, 
But only used my power to show my love. 
Whate'er she asked I gave, without reproach or 

grudge, 
For still she reason asked, and I was judge. 
All my commands, requests at her fair hand, 
And her requests to me were all commands. 
To other households rarely she'd incline, 
Her house her pleasure was, and she was mine. 
Rarely abroad, or never but with me, 
Or when by pity called, or charity." 

Mrs. Wesley's attachment to her husband 
was undying. When some disagreement oc- 
curred between her brother and her husband 
Mrs. Wesley took the side of her husband, and 
wrote to her brother as follows : "I am on the 
wrong side of fifty, infirm and weak, but, old 
as I am, since I have taken my husband for 
better, for worse, I'll keep my residence with 
him. Where he lives, I will live; where he 
dies, I will die, and there will I be buried. 
God do unto me, and m6re also, if aught but 
death part him and me." 

In giving directions to her son John in re- 
gard to the right or wrong of worldly pleasure 
she says: "Take this rule: Whatever weakens 
your reason, impairs the tenderness of your 
conscience, obscures your sense of God, or 
takes off the relish for spiritual things — in 



Gbe WLeeley ffamtlg. 31 

short, whatever increases the strength and au- 
thority of your body over your mind, that 
thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be 
in itself." Did ever divine or philosopher state 
the question more clearly? Whoever follows 
these directions will not err in regard to the 
question of amusements. 

Such a woman as this is worthy to be the 
mother of the founder of Methodism, for had 
not Susannah Wesley been the mother of John 
Wesley it is not likely that John Wesley 
would have been the founder of Methodism. 
We shall have occasion to speak of this woman 
and her husband further on. 



CHAPTER III. 
Wesley's early life. 

During the first eleven years of Wesley's 
life two events occurred worthy of note. At 
the age of five he was rescued from the burn- 
ing parsonage almost by miracle. On a win- 
ter night, February 9, 1709, while all the fam- 
ily were wrapped in slumber, the cry of "Fire ! 
fire !" was heard on the street. The rector was 
suddenly awakened, and, though half naked, 
sought to arouse his family. He rushed to 
the chamber, called the nurse and the children, 
and bade them "rise quickly and shift for 
themselves." After great effort they succeeded 
in making their escape from the burning 
house. They are all safe except "Jack." He 
had not been seen by anyone. In a few mo- 
ments his voice was heard, crying for help. 
The flames were everywhere. The father, 
greatly excited, attempted to rush upstairs, 
but the flames drove him back. He fell on his 
knees and commended the soul of his boy to 
God. 

While the father was on his knees the boy 
had mounted a trunk and called from the win- 
dow. There was no time for ladders, for the 




: 



HI! 






k -ti-p-.iij ; f 

...J I life*! -. - r§*. 




THE WESLEYAN MEMORIAL CHURCH, EPWORTH, ENGLAND. 



meelev'e Earls life. 33 

house was nigh to falling. One cried, "Come 
here! I will stand against the wall, and you 
mount my shoulders quickly." In a moment 
it was done, and the child was pulled through 
the casement, and the next moment the walls 
fell — inward, through mercy — and the child, 
as well as the one who rescued him, was saved. 
His father received him as "a brand plucked 
from the burning," and in the joy of his heart 
cried out : "Come, neighbors, let us kneel down, 
and give thanks to God ! He has given me all 
my children. Let the house go; I am rich 
enough." 

There is no doubt but that some of his das- 
tardly parishioners fired his house, and now 
house, books, furniture, manuscripts, and 
clothing were all gone. But this foul act 
made him many friends. A new house was 
built, but it was many years before he recov- 
ered from the loss, if, indeed, he ever did. 

John's wonderful escape deeply impressed 
his mother that God intended him for some 
work of special importance in the history of 
the Church and the world, and she felt that 
she ought to devote special attention to him 
and train him for God. 

At eight years of age John contracted that 
most dreaded disease, smallpox. His father 
was from home at the time. Mrs. Wesley, 
writing, says: "Jack has borne his disease 
bravely, like a man — and, indeed, like a Chris- 



34 Zhe deling people's Wesley. 

tian — without any complaint ; though he seems 
angry at the smallpox when they are sore, as 
we guess by his looking sourly at them; for 
he never says anything." Brave boy! 

Charterhouse School. 

Passing fro'm the watchful eye of his father 
and the tender, loving, and almost unexampled 
care and instruction of his mother, he entered, 
at about the age of eleven, the famous Charter- 
house School, London. This was built orig- 
inally for a monastery. It was purchased by 
Thomas Sutton, Esq., and under a charter 
from King James he established a school for 
the young. In this school forty-four boys, be- 
tween the ages of ten and fifteen, were gratu- 
itously fed, clothed, and instructed in the clas- 
sics. Here such notables as Addison, Steele, 
Blackstone, Isaac Barrows, and others were 
educated. 

Young Wesley was largely aided in secur- 
ing this position by the Duke of Buckingham, 
who seems to have been a fast friend of the 
family. He secured for him a scholarship, 
which gave him about two hundred dollars a 
year. By the direction of his father he ran 
around the playgrounds three times every 
morning for the benefit of his health. It was 
a school of trial. Being a charity scholar, he 
did not escape the taunts of his fellow-stu- 
dents more highly favored than he; but he 



meele&e £arls %iic. 35 

bore all with meekness, patiently suffering 
wrongfully. He remained there some six years, 
and, though a mere youth, he distinguished 
himself in every branch of scholarship to which 
he turned his attention. 

Mr. Tyerman, who seems to have searched 
for every spot on this rising sun, is bold to 
say that Wesley "lost the religion which had 
marked his character from the days of his 
infancy. He entered the Charterhouse a saint, 
and left it a sinner." We cannot find this 
marked change on the record with the clear- 
ness with which it appears to Mr. Tyerman, 
There is no evidence that Wesley had ever 
known the converting grace of God up to this 
time, and, if not, we are unable to see how he 
could have lost it. That he was a sinner at 
this time there can be no doubt. But, while 
he confesses that he was a sinner, he declares 
that his "sins were not scandalous in the eyes 
of the world." Instead of being the wicked 
boy that Mr. Tyerman represents him to have 
been, he declares: "I still read the Scriptures, 
and said my prayers morning and evening. 
And what I now hoped to be saved by was: 
(1) Not being as bad as other people; (2) 
Having still a kindness for religion; and (3) 
Reading my Bible, going to church, and say- 
ing my prayers." Should an unconverted 
young man in these times, in passing through 
our high schools or seminaries, give evidence 



36 Gbe IPoung ipeople's meelev. 

that he read his Bible, prayed morning and 
evening, attended church regularly, joined in 
all the devotions, went to the sacrament, and 
manifested a kindness for religion, who would 
say that "he entered the school a saint, and 
left it a sinner"? There is no evidence that 
Wesley, during his six years' course at the 
Charterhouse, ever contracted vicious habits 
or became a flagrant sinner. The wonder is 
that, with such corrupt and corrupting influ- 
ences surrounding him, he had not been mor- 
ally ruined. 

Christ College. 
At the age of seventeen he entered Christ 
College, Oxford, one of the noblest colleges of 
that famous seat of learning, where he re- 
mained five years, under the care of Dr. 
Wigon, a gentleman of fine classical attain- 
ments. His excellent standing at the Charter- 
house gave him a high position at Oxford. 
His means of support were very limited. His 
mother laments their inability to assist him. 
In a letter to him she says: 

Dear Jack : I am uneasy because I have not heard 
from you. If all things fail, I hope God will not 
forsake us. We have still his good providence to 
depend on. Dear Jack, be not discouraged. Do your 
duty. Keep close to your studies, and hope for bet- 
ter days. Perhaps, after all, we shall pick up a few 
crumbs for you before the end of the year. Dear 
Jack, I beseech Almighty God to bless thee. 

Susannah Wesley. 



WLesle&e Barlg %ite. 37 

This indicates the great financial embarrass- 
ment in which they were often found, as well 
as their abiding trust in God. 

His mother seems deeply concerned for his 
religious life. She writes, "Now in good ear- 
nest resolve to make religion the business of 
life ; for, after all, that is the one thing that, 
strictly speaking, is necessary. All things 
besides are comparatively little to the purposes 
of life. I heartily wish you would now enter 
upon a strict examination of yourself, that 
you may know whether you have a reasonable 
hope of salvation by Jesus Christ. If you 
have it, the satisfaction of knowing it will 
abundantly reward your pains; if you have 
it not, you will find a more reasonable oc- 
casion for tears than can be met with in any 
tragedy." 

His brother Samuel writes hopefully to his 
father: "My brother Jack, I can faithfully 
assure you, gives you no manner of discourage- 
ment from believing your third son a scholar. 
Jack is a brave boy, learning Hebrew as fast 
as he can." 

At the age of twenty-one, while yet a stu- 
dent at Oxford, "he appears," says a writer of 
the time, "the very sensible and acute col- 
legian; a young fellow of the finest classical 
taste, of the most liberal and manly senti- 
ments." Alexander Knox says: "His counte- 
nance, as well as his conversation, expressed 



38 Gbe poling peopled Wesley. 

an habitual gayety of heart, which nothing 
but conscious innocence and virtue could have 
bestowed." Then, referring to him in more 
advanced life, he says: "He was, in truth, the 
most perfect specimen of moral happiness I 
ever saw; and my acquaintance with him has 
done more to teach me what a heaven upon 
earth is implied in the maturity of Christian 
piety than all I have elsewhere seen or heard 
or read, except in the sacred volume." 
"Strange," says another writer, "that such a 
man should have become a target for poisoned 
arrows, discharged, not by the hands of mad- 
cap students only, but by college dignitaries, 
by men solemnly pledged to the work of Chris- 
tian education!" 

About this time Wesley became Fellow of 
Lincoln College, and his brother Charles, who 
was five years younger, became a student of 
Christ Church College. He had prepared for 
college at Westminster grammar school, and 
was a "gay young fellow, with more genius 
than grace," loving pleasure more than piety. 
When John sought to revive the "'fireside de- 
votion" of the Epworth home he rejoined, with 
some degree of earnestness, "What! would 
you have me be a saint all at once?" 

In September of 1725 John was ordained 
deacon by Bishop Potter, and in March of the 
following year was elected Fellow of Lincoln 
College, with which his aged father seems to 



TimesleE's Barlg 3Ufe. 39 

have been greatly delighted, saying, "Wher- 
ever I am, Jack is Fellow of Lincoln !" 

His Father's Curate. 

His father's health failing, John was urged 
to become his curate. He responded to his 
father's request, but does not seem to have had 
a very high appreciation of his father's flock, 
for he describes them as "unpolished wights, 
as dull as asses and impervious as stones." 
But for about two years he hammers away, 
preaching the law as he then understood it, 
confessing that "he saw no fruit for his labor." 

He then returned to Oxford as Greek lec- 
turer, devoting himself to the study of logic, 
ethics, natural philosophy, oratory, Hebrew, 
and Arabic. He perfected himself in French, 
and spoke and wrote Latin with remarkable 
purity and correctness. He gave considerable 
attention to medicine. In this way Providence 
was fitting him for the great work of which 
he was to be the God-ordained leader. About 
the time that Wesley entered upon his minis- 
try, by episcopal ordination, and commenced 
his lifework, Voltaire was expelled from 
France and fled to England. During a long 
life he and Wesley were contemporaries. Mr. 
Tyerman gives a graphic description of these 
two remarkable men. "Perhaps of all the 
men then living," he says, "none exercised so 
great an influence as the restless philosopher 



40 Gbe f oun0 peopled WLcelev. 

and the unwearied minister of Christ. Wes- 
ley, in person, was beautiful; Voltaire was of 
a physiognomy so strange, and lighted up with 
fire so half -hellish and half -heavenly, that it 
was hard to say whether it was the face of a 
satyr or man. Wesley's heart was filled with a 
world-wide benevolence; Voltaire, though of a 
gigantic mind, scarcely had a heart at all — an 
incarnation of avaricious meanness, and a 
victim to petty passions. Wesley was the 
friend of all and the enemy of none; Voltaire 
was too selfish to love, and when forced to pay 
the scanty and ill-tempered homage which he 
sometimes rendered it was always offered at 
the shrine of rank and wealth. Wesley had 
myriads who loved him; Voltaire had numer- 
ous admirers, but probably not a friend. Both 
were men of ceaseless labor, and almost un- 
equaled authors; but while the one filled the 
land with blessings, the other, by his sneering 
and mendacious attacks against revealed re- 
ligion, inflicted a greater curse than has been 
inflicted by the writings of any other author 
either before or since. The evangelist is now 
esteemed by all whose good opinions are worth 
having; the philosopher is only remembered 
to be branded with well-merited reproach and 
shame." Voltaire ended his life as a fool by 
taking opium, while Wesley ends his life in 
holy triumph, exclaiming, "The best of all is, 
God is with us." 



CHAPTER IV, 

THE EPWOBTH RAPPINGS. 

It does not seem as if a Life of John Wes- 
ley would be complete without an account of 
what was known as the "Epworth rappings," 
which occurred in the home of Samuel Wesley 
in 1716, while John was at the Charterhouse 
School, London. They occasioned no little 
speculation among philosophers and doubters 
in general, not only at the time they occurred, 
but down to the present day. A brief descrip- 
tion of these strange noises, and how they were 
regarded at the time, may be proper in this 
place. 

On the, night of December 2, 1716, Kobert 
Brown, Mr. Wesley's servant, and one of the 
maids of the family were alone in the dining 
room. About ten o'clock they heard a strong 
knocking on the outside of the door which 
opened into the garden. They answered the 
call, but no one was there. A second knock 
was heard, accompanied by a groan. The door 
was again and again opened, as the knocks were 
repeated, with the same result. Being startled, 
they retired for the night. 

As Mr. Brown reached the top of the stairs 



42 Gbe loung peopled TKHesleg. 

a hand mill, at a little distance, was seen whirl- 
ing with great velocity. On seeing the strange 
sight he seemed only to regret that it was not 
full of malt. Strange noises were heard in 
and about the room during the night. These 
were related to another maid in the morn- 
ing, only to be met with a laugh, and, "What 
a pack of fools you are !" This was the begin- 
ning of these strange noises in the Epworth 
parsonage. 

Subsequently, knocking was heard on the 
doors, on the bedstead, and at various times in 
all parts of the house. 

Susannah and Ann were one evening below 
stairs in the dining room and heard knockings 
at the door and overhead. The next night, 
while in their chamber, they heard knockings 
under their feet, while no person was in the 
chamber at the time, nor in the room below. 
Knockings were heard at the foot of the bed 
and behind it. 

Mr. Wesley says that, on the night of the 
21st of December, "I was wakened, a little 
before one o'clock, by nine distinct and very 
loud knocks, which seemed to be in the next 
room to ours, with a short pause at every third 
knock." The next night Emily heard knocks 
on the bedstead and under the bed. She 
knocked, and it answered her. "I went down 
stairs," says Mr. Wesley, "and knocked with 
my stick against the joists of the kitchen. 



Gbe iBpwortb TRappfngs. 43 

It answered me as loud and as often as I 
knocked." Knockings were heard under the 
table; latches of doors were moved up and 
down as the members of the family approached 
them. Doors were violently thrust against 
those who attempted to open or shut them. 

When prayer was offered in the evening, by 
the rector, for the king, a knocking began all 
around the room, and a thundering knock at 
the amen. This was repeated at morning and 
evening, when prayer was offered for the king. 
Mr. Wesley says, "I have been thrice pushed 
by an invisible power, once against the cor- 
ner of my desk in my study, and a second time 
against the door of the matted chamber, and 
a third time against the right side of the 
frame of my study door, as I was going in." 

Mr. Poole, the vicar of Haxey, an eminently 
pious and sensible man, was sent for to spend 
the night with the family. The knocking com- 
menced about ten o'clock in the evening. Mr. 
Wesley and his brother clergyman went into 
the nursery, where the knockings were heard. 
Mr. Wesley observed that the children, though 
asleep, were very much affected ; they trembled 
exceedingly and sweat profusely; and, becom- 
ing very much excited, he pulled out a pistol 
and was about to fire it at the place from 
whence the sound came. Mr. Poole caught his 
arm and said: "Sir, you are convinced that 
this is something preternatural. If so, you 



44 Gbe loung ipeople's WLeelev. 

cannot hurt it, but you give it power to hurt 
you." Then going close to the place, Mr. Wes- 
ley said : "Thou deaf and dumb devil, why dost 
thou frighten these children, who cannot an- 
swer for themselves ? Come to me in my study, 
who am a man." Instantly the particular 
knock which the rector always gave at the 
gate was given, as if it would shiver the board 
in pieces. The next evening, on entering his 
study, of which no one but himself had the 
key, the door was thrust against him with such 
force as nearly to throw him down. 

A sound was heard as if a large iron bell was 
thrown among bottles under the stairs ; and as 
Mr. and Mrs. Wesley were going down stairs 
they heard a sound as if a vessel of silver were 
poured upon Mrs. Wesley's breast and ran 
jingling down to her feet ; and at another time 
a noise as if all the pewter were thrown about 
the kitchen. But on examination all was 
found undisturbed. 

The dog, a large mastiff, seemed as much dis- 
turbed by these noises as the family. On their 
approach he would run to Mr. and Mrs. Wes- 
ley, seeking shelter between them. While the 
disturbances continued the dog would bark and 
leap, and snap on one side and on the other, 
and that frequently before any person in the 
room heard any noise at all. But after two or 
three days he used to tremble and creep away 
before the noise began; and by this the fam- 



Zbc lEpwortb IRappfnas. 45 

ily knew of its approach. Footsteps were 
heard in all parts of the house, from cellar to 
garret. Groans and every sort of noise were 
heard all over the house too numerous to re- 
late. Whenever it was attributed to rats and 
mice the noises would become louder and 
fiercer. 

These disturbances continued for some four 
months and then subsided, except that some 
members of the family were annoyed by them 
for several years. 

Mr. Wesley was frequently urged to quit 
the parsonage. His reply was eminently char- 
acteristic: "No," said he, "let the devil flee 
from me. I will never flee from the devil." 

Every effort was made to discover the cause 
of these disturbances, but without satisfactory 
results, save that all believed they were preter- 
natural. The whole family were unanimous 
in the belief that it was satanic. 

A full account of these noises was prepared 
from the most authentic sources by John Wes- 
ley and published in the Arminian Magazine. 
Dr. Priestley, an unbeliever, confessed it to 
have been the best-authenticated and best-told 
story of the kind that was anywhere extant; 
and yet, so strongly wedded was he to his ma- 
terialistic views, he could not accept them, 
nor find what might be regarded as a common- 
sense solution of them. He thought it quite 
probable that it was a trick of the servants, 



46 ttbe Jjjouna people's WLeelev. 

assisted by some of the neighbors, and that 
nothing was meant by it except puzzling the 
family and amusing themselves. But Mrs. 
Wesley and other members of the household 
declared that the noises were heard above and 
beneath them when all the family were in the 
same room. 

Dr. Southey, though he does not express an 
opinion of these noises in his Life of Wesley, 
in a letter to Mr. Wilberforce avows his be- 
lief in their preternatural character. In his 
Life of Wesley he does say, "The testimony 
upon which it rests is far too strong to be 
set aside because of the strangeness of the 
relation." 

Dr. Priestley observes in favor of the story 
that all the parties seemed to have been suf- 
ficiently void of fear, and also free from 
credulity, except the general belief that such 
things were supernatural. But he claims that 
"where no good end is answered we may safely 
conclude that no miracle was wrought ." 

Mr. Southey replies to Priestley thus : "The 
former argument would be valid if the term 
'miracle' were applicable to the case; but by 
'miracle' Mr. Priestley intends a manifestation 
of divine power, and in the present case no 
such meaning is supposed, any more than in 
the appearance of departed spirits. Such 
things may be preternatural and yet not mirac- 
ulous; they may be in the ordinary course of 



ftbe jEpwoctb trappings. 47 

nature, and yet imply no alteration of its laws. 
And in regard to the good end which it may 
be supposed to answer, it would be end sufficient 
if sometimes one of those unhappy persons, 
who, looking through the dim glass of infidel- 
ity, sees something beyond this life and the 
narrow sphere of mortal existence, should, from 
the well-established truth of such a story 
(trifling and objectless as it may appear), be 
led to conclude that there are more things in 
heaven and earth than are dreamed of in their 
philosophy."* 

Mr. Coleridge finds a satisfactory solution 
of this knotty question in attributing the whole 
thing to "a contagious nervous disease" with 
which he judged the whole family to have 
been afflicted, "the acme or intensest form of 
which is catalepsy." The poor dog, it would 
seem, was as badly afflicted as the rest. 

This notion does not need refutation. Dr. 
Adam Clarke, who collected all the accounts of 
these disturbances and published them in his 
Wesley Family, claims that they are so cir- 
cumstantial and authentic as to entitle them 
to the most implicit credit. The eye and ear 
witnesses were persons of strong understand- 
ing and well-cultivated minds, untinctured by 
superstition, and in some instances rather 
skeptically inclined. 

* Life of Wesley, pp. 24, 25. 



48 Gbe n>ouns peopled Weelev. 

These unexplained noises in the Epworth 
rectory found their counterpart in what was 
known a little earlier as "New England witch- 
craft," and in our times as the Rochester and 
Hidsville knockings in 1848, which have rip- 
ened into modern Spiritualism, which, if real, 
is satanic. 

There is but little doubt that these remark- 
able occurrences at his Epworth home made a 
deep and lasting impression on John Wesley's 
mind and life. There was ever present to his 
mind the reality of an invisible world, and he 
was convinced that satanic as well as angelic 
forces were all about us, both to bless and to 
ruin us if permitted to do so by Him who rules 
all the world. 



CHAPTER V. 

ORIGIN OP THE HOLY CLUB. 

It was while he was a member of Lincoln 
College that that unparalleled religious career 
of Mr. Wesley, which has always been regarded 
as the most wonderful movement of modern 
times, began. "Whoever studies the simplicity 
of its beginning, the rapidity of its growth, 
the stability of its institutions, its present vi- 
tality and activity, its commanding position 
and prospective greatness, must confess the 
work to be not of man, but of God." 

The heart of the youthful collegian was pro- 
foundly stirred by the reading of the Chris- 
tian Pattern, by Thomas a Kempis, and Holy 
Living and Dying, by Jeremy Taylor. He 
learned from the former "that simplicity of 
intention and purity of affection were the 
wings of the soul, without which he could never 
ascend to God;" and on reading the latter he 
instantly resolved to dedicate all his life to 
God. He was convinced that there was no me- 
dium; every part must be a sacrifice to either 
God or himself. From this time his whole 
life was changed. How much he owed under 
God to these two works eternity alone will 
4 - . 



50 XLbc 2£oun0 peopled WLeelcv. 

reveal. Law's Call and Perfection greatly 
aided him. 

A little band was formed of such as professed 
to seek for all the mind of Christ. They com- 
menced with four ; soon their number increased 
to six, then to eight, and so on. Their object 
was purely mutual profit. They read the clas- 
sics on week days and divinity on the Sabbath. 
They prayed, fasted, visited the sick, the poor, 
the imprisoned. They were near to adminis- 
ter religious consolation to criminals in the 
hour of their execution. The names of these 
remarkable religious reformers were : John and 
Charles Wesley, Robert Kirkham, William 
Morgan, George Whitefield, John Clayton, T. 
Broughton, B. Ingham, J. Harvey, J. White- 
lamb, W. Hall, J. Gambold, C. Kinchin, W. 
Smith, Richard Hutchins, Christopher At- 
kinson, and Messrs. Salmon, Morgan, Boyce, 
and others. 

As might have been expected, they were rid- 
iculed and lampooned by those who differed 
from them, and who could not comprehend the 
motive to such a religious life. They were 
called in derision "Sacramentarians," "Bible 
Bigots," "Bible Moths," "The Holy Club," 
"The Godly Club," "Supererogation Men," and 
finally "Methodists." Their strict, methodical 
lives in the arrangement of their studies and 
the improvement of their time, their serious 
deportment and close attention to religious 



OxiQin of tbe 1x>lB Club, 51 

duties, caused a jovial friend of Charles Wes- 
ley to say, "Why, here is a new sect of Meth- 
odists springing up!" alluding to an ancient 
school of physicians, or to a class of Noncon- 
forming ministers of the seventeenth century, 
or to both, who received this title from some 
things common to each. The name took, and 
the young men were known throughout the 
university as the Methodists. The name thus 
given in derision was finally accepted, and has 
been retained in honor to this day by the fol- 
lowers of Wesley. 

A writer in one of the most respectable jour- 
nals of the day, in describing these inoffensive 
men, employed the most unwarrantable lan- 
guage. It was affirmed that they had a near 
affinity to the Essenes among the Jews, and 
to the Pietists of Switzerland; they excluded 
what was absolutely necessary to the support 
of life; they afflicted their bodies; they let 
blood once a fortnight to keep down the carnal 
man; they allowed none to have any religion 
but those of their own sect, while they them- 
selves were farthest from it. They were hyp- 
ocrites, and were supposed to use religion only 
as a veil to vice; and their greatest friends 
were ashamed to stand in their defense. They 
were enthusiasts, madmen, fools, and zealots. 
They pretended to be more pious than their 
neighbors. These were but the beginning of 
sorrows, as we shall see later. 



52 $be HJounG fieopte's IKaesleE* 

Wesley says : "111 men say all manner of evil 
of me, and good men believe them. There 
is a way, and there is but one, of making 
my peace. God forbid I should ever take 
it." 

"As for reputafion," he says, "though it 
be a glorious instrument of advancing our 
Master's service, yet there is a better than that 
— a clean heart, a single eye, a soul full of 
God." What words are these for a minister of 
the Lord Jesus! It implies heroic, unselfish 
devotion to a glorious object. He had discov- 
ered the secret of success. 

What golden words are these : "I once desired 
to make a fair show in language and phi- 
losophy. But that is past. There is a more 
excellent way; and if I cannot attain 
to any progress in one without throwing 
up , all thoughts of the other, why, fare it 
well." This gives the reader an idea of the 
motive which governed him to the end of 
life. 

In the midst of these scenes of persecution 
Wesley addressed a letter to his venerable fa- 
ther, still living at Epworth, asking his advice. 
The old man urged him to go on and not be 
weary in well-doing; "to bear no more sail 
than necessary, but to steer steady. As they 
had called his son the father of the Holy Club, 
they might call him the grandfather, and he 
would glory in that name rather than in the 



©rigfn of tbe 1bol« Club. 53 

title of His Holiness." These were noble words 
from sire to son at such a time and in such a 
conflict. 

In years after, when looking back upon the 
scenes of Oxford and that mustard-seed be- 
ginning, Wesley said : "Two young men, with- 
out name, without friends, without either 
power or fortune, set out from college with 
principles totally different from those of the 
common people, to oppose all the world, learned 
and unlearned, to combat popular prejudices 
of every kind. Their first principle directly 
attacked all wickedness; their second, all the 
bigotry in the world. Thus they attempted a 
reformation not of opinions (feathers, trifles 
not worth naming), but of men's tempers and 
lives ; of vice of every kind ; of everything con- 
trary to justice, mercy, or truth. And for this 
it was that they carried their lives in their 
hands, and that both the great vulgar and the 
small looked upon them as mad dogs, and 
treated them as such." Such was the begin- 
ning of the religious career of this wonderful 
man. Wesley refers to three distinct periods 
of the rise of Methodism. He says: "The 
first rise of Methodism was in November, 1729, 
when four of us met at Oxford. The second 
was at Savannah, in April, 1736, when twenty 
or thirty persons met at my house. The last 
was at London, May 1, 1738, when forty or 
fifty of us agreed to meet together every 



54 Gbe ^onriQ people's meelev. 

Wednesday evening, in order to free conver- 
sation, begun and ended with singing and 
prayer. God then thrust us out to raise a holy 
people." 

It would be interesting to follow these men 
and learn the results of their lives; but our 
space does not permit. We refer the reader 
to that most excellent work, The Oxford Meth- 
odists, by Tyerman. Of Kobert Kirkham little 
or nothing is known. William Morgan died 
while a mere youth, and died well. John Clay- 
ton became a Jacobite Churchman, and treated 
Wesley and his brother Charles with utter con- 
tempt. Thomas Broughton became secretary 
of the "Society for the Promotion of Chris- 
tian Knowledge," and was faithful to his trust 
till death. He died suddenly upon his knees, 
on a Sabbath morning just before he was to 
have preached. James Harvey, author of Med- 
itations, was a man of beautiful character, 
but opposed Wesley's Arminian views. Charles 
Kinchin, unlike most of the "Holy Club," re- 
mained the fast friend of Wesley until death. 
John Whitelamb married John Wesley's sister 
Mary, who died within one year, leaving her 
husband broken-hearted and despondent. He 
seems to have lost much of his early devotion, 
causing Mr. Wesley to say, "O, why did he 
not die forty years ago?" Wesley Hall mar- 
ried John Wesley's sister Martha, a lady of 
superior talents and sweetness of disposition. 



Ovigin of tbe IbolE Club. 55 

Wesley regarded Hall as a man "holy and un- 
blamable in all manner of conversation." After 
some years Hall went to the bad. He became, 
first, a Dissenter, then a Universalist, then a 
deist, after that a polygamist. He abandoned 
his charming wife, nine of his ten children 
having died, and the tenth soon followed. He 
went to the West Indies with one of his con- 
cubines, living there until her death. Broken 
in health and awakened to his terrible con- 
dition, he returned to England, where he soon 
after died. His lawful and faithful wife, hear- 
ing of his condition, like an angel of mercy 
hastened to his bedside. He died in great sor- 
row of heart, saying — and they were his last 
words — "I have injured an angel, an angel 
that never reproached me." Wesley says: "I 
trust he died in peace, for God gave him deep 
repentance." John Gambold became a Morav- 
ian bishop, and was so opposed to Wesley that 
he frankly told him he was "ashamed to be 
seen in his company." Wesley, however, al- 
ways held him in high esteem. Of Richard 
Hutchins little is known, except that he was 
rector of Lincoln College, and never seems to 
have opposed the Wesleys. Christopher At- 
kinson was for twenty-five years vicar of 
Shorp-Arch and Walton. His last words 
were, "Come, Lord Jesus, and come quickly." 
Charles Delamotte was one who accompanied 
the Wesleys to Georgia. Little further is 



56 Gbe loung people's Wesley. 

known of him, except that he became a Morav- 
ian and died in peace at Barrow upon the 
Humber. 

Here ends our account of the "Holy Club." 
All of them maintained a correct life except 
Hall. They were nearly all Calvinists, and in 
this they came in conflict with Wesley. Had 
they remained with Wesley, what a record they 
might have made! We trust their end was 
peace. 

A Triumphant Death Scene. 

Go with me to the Epworth rectory. The 
venerable Samuel Wesley is dying; no, not 
dying, but languishing into life. John and 
Charles have been summoned from Oxford, 
and they are at the bedside. The faithful wife 
is so overcome that she cannot be present to 
witness the dying scene. 

John sympathetically inquires, "Do you suf- 
fer much, father?" The dying man responds, 
"Yes, but nothing is too much to suffer for 
heaven. The weaker I am in body the stronger 
and more sensible support I feel from God." 
The dying saint lays his trembling hand on 
the head of Charles, and, like a true prophet, 
says, "Be steady! The Christian faith will 
surely revive in this kingdom. You shall see 
it, though I shall not." John inquires again, 
"Are you near heaven?" The dying rector 
joyfully responds, "Yes, I am." "Are all the 



©rfgfn of tbe 1bol£ Club. 57 

consolations of God small with you, father?" 
The emphatic answer is, "No! no! no!" 

He then called his children each by name, 
and said to them, "Think of heaven; talk of 
heaven! All the time is lost when we are not 
thinking of heaven." The hour came for his 
departure. The children knelt beside his bed; 
John prayed. As the prayer ended, in a feeble 
whisper the rector said, "Now you have done 
all." Again John prayed, commending the 
soul of his honored father to God. All was 
silent as the tomb. They opened their eyes, 
and the rector was with the Lord, "beholding 
the King in his beauty." "Can anything on 
earth be more beautiful," says one writer, 
"than such a death ? It was indeed fitting that 
this tried, scarred Christian warrior should 
pass thus peacefully to his reward." 

"Now," said his widow, in great sorrow, "I 
am appeased in his having so easy a death, and 
I am strengthened to bear it." 

On the very day of the rector's funeral a 
heartless parishioner, to whom the rector 
owed seventy-five dollars, seized the widow's 
cattle to secure the debt. But it was such a 
deed as his godless people were ever ready to 
perpetrate. John came to the relief of his 
poor mother, and gave the woman his note for 
the amount. 

Wesley is again at Oxford, intent on service 
for his Lord. 



CHAPTER VI. 

WESLEY IN AMERICA. 

One of the most remarkable chapters in the 
life of John Wesley relates to his mission to 
America. 

There was a tract of land in North America, 
lying between South Carolina and Florida, 
over which the English held a nominal juris- 
diction. It was a wild, unexplored wilderness, 
inhabited only by Indian tribes. Under the 
sanction of a royal charter in 1732 a settle- 
ment was made in this territory, and as a 
compliment to the king, George II, it was 
named Georgia. 

The object of such a settlement was twofold : 
first, to supply an outlet for the redundant pop- 
ulation of the English metropolis; and, sec- 
ondly, to furnish a safe asylum for foreign 
Protestants who were the subjects of popish 
intolerance. No Roman Catholic could find a 
home there. James Edward Oglethorpe, an 
earnest friend of humanity, was appointed the 
first governor of the territory, and he and 
twenty others were named as trustees, to hold 
the territory twenty years in trust for the poor. 

The first company of emigrants, one hun- 



WLeelev in Bmerfca. 59 

dred and twenty-four in number, had already 
landed at Savannah and were breathing its 
balmy air, and the enthusiastic governor was 
on his return to inspire in the mind of the 
English people increased confidence in the new 
enterprise. 

Having long been a personal friend of the 
Wesley family, Oglethorpe knew well the ster- 
ling worth of the two brothers, John and 
Charles, who were still at Oxford. An applica- 
tion was made to some of the Oxford Metho- 
dists to settle in the new colony as clergymen. 
Such sacrifices as they were ready to endure, 
and such a spirit as seemed to inflame them, 
were regarded as excellent qualities for the 
hardships of such a country as Georgia. Mr. 
Wesley was earnestly pressed by no less a per- 
son than the famous Dr. Burton to undertake 
a mission to the Indians of Georgia, Dr. Bur- 
ton telling him that "plausible and popular 
doctors of divinity were not the men wanted in 
Georgia," but men "inured to contempt of the 
ornaments and conveniences of life, to bodily 
austerities, and to serious thoughts." He final- 
ly consented, his brother Charles, Benjamin 
Ingham, and Charles Delamotte joining him. 

When the project was made public it was 
regarded by many as a Quixotic scheme. One 
inquired of John: "Do you intend to become 
a knight-errant? How did Quixotism get into 
your head? You want nothing. You have a 



60 Gbe Roving people's meelev. 

good provision for life. You are in a fair way 
for promotion, and yet you are leaving all to 
fight windmills." 

"Sir," replied Mr. Wesley, "if the Bible be 
not true, I am as very a fool and madman as 
you can conceive. But if that book be of God, 
I am sober-minded; for it declares, 'There is 
no man that hath left houses, and friends, and 
brethren for the kingdom of God's sake, who 
shall not receive manifold in this present time, 
and in the world to come everlasting life.' " 

He submitted his plans to his widowed moth- 
er, asking her advice. She replied, "Had I 
twenty sons, I should rejoice to see them all so 
employed." His sister Emily said, "Go, my 
brother;" and his brother Samuel joined with 
his mother and sister in bidding him God- 
speed. 

All things being in readiness, on the 14th of 
October, 1735, the company embarked on board 
the Simmonds, off Gravesend, and after a few 
days' detention set sail for the New World. 

This was a voyage of discovery — the discov- 
ery of holiness. 

"Our end in leaving our native land," Wes- 
ley says, "was not to avoid want, God having 
given us plenty of temporal blessings; nor to 
gain the dung and dross of riches and honor; 
but simply to save our souls, to live wholly to 
the glory of God." 

Wesley hoped by subjecting himself to the 



WLeelev in Bmerfca, 61 

hardships of such a life to secure that holi- 
ness for which his soul so ardently longed. He 
had no clear conception as yet of the doctrine 
of salvation by faith alone. He hoped by 
spending his life among rude savages to es- 
cape the temptations of the great metropolis. 
In the wilds of America he could live on "wa- 
ter and bread and the fruits of the earth," and 
speak "without giving offense." He justly con- 
cluded that "pomp and show of the world had 
no place in the wilds of America." "An In- 
dian hut offered no food for curiosity." "My 
chief motive," he says, "is the hope of saving 
my own soul. I hope to learn the true sense 
of the Gospel of Christ by preaching it to 
the heathen." "I cannot hope to attain the 
same degree of holiness here which I do there." 
"I hope," he continues, "from the moment I 
leave the English shore, under the acknowl- 
edged character of a teacher sent from God, 
there shall be no word heard from my lips 
but what properly flows from that character." 

But Wesley could not get away from him- 
self. The greatest hindrance to holiness was 
in his own heart. He had looked for holiness 
in works, sacrifices, austerities, etc., but had 
failed to see that it was by faith alone. 

The voyage, though of almost unparalleled 
roughness, was of infinite profit to Wesley. A 
company of Moravians, with David Nitsch- 
mann as their bishop, were passengers, bound 



62 ftbe loung ftieople's We&ley. 

to the New World, fleeing from popish perse- 
cutions. Wesley, observing their behavior in 
the midst of great peril, was convinced that 
they were in possession of that to which he 
was a stranger. Ingham represented them 
as "a heavenly minded people." 

Fifty-seven days of sea life brought them 
within sight of the beautiful Savannah. Soon 
they were kneeling upon its soil, thanking 
God for his merciful care and providential 
deliverance. 

An event occurred on the voyage to Georgia 
illustrating Wesley's character. General Ogle- 
thorpe had become offended at his Italian 
servant. Hearing a disturbance in the cabin, 
Wesley stepped in. The general, observing 
him, and being in a high temper, sought to 
apologize. "You must excuse me, Mr. Wesley," 
he said; "I have met with a provocation too 
great for a man to bear. You know I drink 
nothing but Cyprus wine. I provided myself 
with several dozens of it, and this villain, 
Grimaldi, has drank nearly the whole lot of it. 
I will be avenged. He shall be tied hand and 
foot, and carried to the man-of-war. [A 
man-of-war accompanied the expedition for 
protection.] The rascal should have taken 
care how he used me so, for I never forgive." 
Wesley, fixing his eye upon the general — an eye 
that seemed to penetrate his soul — said, "Then 
I hope, general, you never sin!" 



TNleelcv in America. 63 

The general's heart was touched, his con- 
science smitten. He stood speechless before 
the youthful evangelist for a moment, and 
then threw his bunch of keys on the floor be- 
fore his poor, cringing servant, saying, "There, 
villain, take my keys ; and behave better in the 
future." Wesley, it seems, had the moral 
courage, which probably no other man pos- 
sessed on that ship, to reprove General Ogle- 
thrope to his face. 

Soon after landing in Georgia, Wesley met 
Spangenberg, the Moravian elder, and desired 
to know of him how he should prosecute his 
new enterprise. The devout man of God saw 
clearly the need of the young evangelist, and 
inquired of him : "Have you the witness within 
yourself? Does the Spirit of God bear wit- 
ness with your spirit that you are a child of 
God?" Wesley seemed surprised at such 
questions. Spangenberg continued, "Do you 
know Jesus Christ?" Wesley replied, "I 
know him as the Saviour of the world." 
"True," responded the Moravian elder, "but 
do you know that he saves you?" Wesley re- 
plied, "I hope he has died to save me." Span- 
genberg gravely added, "Do you know your- 
self?" Wesley answered, "I do;" and here the 
interview ended. 

Charles Wesley was Oglethorpe's secretary, 
in place of Rev. Samuel Quincy, a native of 
Massachusetts, who retired from the office, de- 



64 $be 10oun0 people's WLeelev. 

siring to return to England, where he had been 
educated. Ingham seems to have attached 
himself to Charles Wesley, and devoted him- 
self to the children and the poor, and was the 
first to follow Charles to England. Dela- 
motte was impelled to go to Georgia from his 
love of John Wesley and his desire to serve 
him in any capacity ; and he never left him for 
a day while Wesley remained in America. He 
was the last to leave the colony. John Wesley 
was the sole minister of the colony, and stood 
next to Oglethorpe himself. 

The Georgia to which Wesley came was very 
different from the Georgia of to-day. It had 
only a few English settlements, the most of the 
territory being the home of savage Indians. 
These tribes being at war with each other, all 
access to them was cut off. Not being able to 
extend their mission among them, Wesley and 
his colaborers turned their attention to the 
whites, hoping that God would before long 
open their way to preach the Gospel to the 
Indians. In the prosecution of their mission 
they practiced the most rigid austerities. They 
slept on the ground instead of on beds, lived 
on bread and water, dispensing with all the 
luxuries and most of the necessities of 
life. They were, in season and out of season, 
everywhere urging the people to a holy life. 
Wesley set apart three hours of each day for 
visiting the people at their homes, choosing 




WESLEY S ARM-CHAIR. 



meelev in America, 65 

the midday hours when the people were kept 
indoors by the scorching heat. 

Charles Wesley and Mr. Ingham were at 
Frederica, where the people were frank to 
declare that they liked nothing they did. Even 
Oglethorpe himself had become the enemy of 
his secretary, and falsely accused him of in- 
citing a mutiny. 

Their plain, earnest, practical public preach- 
ing and private rebukes aroused the spirit of 
persecution, which broke upon them without 
mixture of mercy. Scandal, with its scorpion 
tongue; backbiting, with its canine proclivi- 
ties; and gossip, which also does immmense 
business on borrowed capital — these ran like 
fires over sun-scorched prairies, until these 
devoted servants of God were well-nigh 
consumed. 

At Frederica, Charles narrowly escaped as- 
sassination. So general and bitter was the 
hate that he says: "Some turned out of the 
way to avoid me." "The servant that used to 
wash my linen sent it back unwashed." "I 
sometimes pitied and sometimes diver^d my- 
self with the odd expressions of their contempt, 
but found the benefit of having undergone a 
much lower degree of obloquy at Oxford." 

While very sick he was unable to secure a 

few boards to lie upon, and was obliged to lie 

on the ground in the corner of Mr. Reed's hut. 

He thanked God that it had not as yet become 

5 



66 Gbe l^oung people's Mesleg. 

a "capital offense to give him a morsel of 
bread." Though very sick, he was able to go 
out at night to bury a scout-boatman, "but 
envied him his quiet grave." He procured the 
old bedstead on which the boatman had died, 
upon which to rest his own sinking and al- 
most dying frame; but the bedstead was soon 
taken from him by order of Oglethorpe him- 
self. But through the mercy of God and the 
coming of his brother and Mr. Delamotte he 
recovered. 

After about six months (February 5 to July 
25) spent in labors more abundant, and almost 
in stripes above measure, Providence opened 
his way to return to England as bearer of dis- 
patches to the government. He took passage 
in a rickerty old vessel with a drunken cap- 
tain, and all came near being lost at sea. The 
ship put into Boston in distress, and there 
Charles Wesley remained for more than a 
month, sick much of the time, but preaching 
several times in King's Chapel, corner of 
School and Tremont Streets, and in Christ 
Church, on Salem Street. This latter church 
remains as it was when Wesley occupied its 
pulpit. 

John remained in Georgia — at Frederica 
and Savannah — battling with sin and Satan, 
with a Christian boldness which might almost 
have inspired wonder among the angels. His 
life was frequently threatened at Frederica, 



IKflesleB in Bmerica. 67 

and at Savannah there was no end to the in- 
sults he endured. Hearing of his conflicts, 
Whitefield writes to him to "go on and pros- 
per, and, in the strength of God, make the 
devil's kingdom shake about his ears." 

Through the cunning craftiness and mani- 
fest hypocrisy of one Miss Hopkey, niece of 
the chief magistrate, and a lady of great ex- 
ternal accomplishments, he came near being 
ruined. She sought his company ; bestowed 
on him every attention; watched him when 
sick; was always at his early morning meet- 
ings; dressed in pure white because she 
learned that he was pleased with that color; 
was always manifesting great interest in his 
spiritual state ; and all, without doubt, to cover 
up deeper designs. Mr. Wesley, always unsus- 
pecting and confiding, became strongly at- 
tached to her for a time, but was subsequently 
convinced that God did not approve of an 
alliance in that direction, and at once deter- 
mined to cut every cord which bound them. 
At this the lady became greatly exasperated, 
and within a few days was married to another 
man — Williamson — and then, with her husband 
and uncle to aid her, she sought in every way 
the overthrow of Mr. Wesley. 

Mr. Tyerman seeks to make this case, as, in 
fact, many others, turn to the disadvantage of 
Wesley. He will have it that Wesley had 
promised to marry Miss Hopkey, though 



68 Gbe 12oiHi0 fl>eopte's WLe&iev. 

Henry Moore declares that Wesley told him 
that no such thing ever occurred. Mr. Tyer- 
man gives credit to the testimony of the hypo- 
critical Mis3 Hopkey rather than to that of 
Henry Moore and John Wesley. 

After a time Wesley, for just causes, ex- 
cluded Mrs. Williamson from the Lord's table, 
and gave his reasons for so doing. For this he 
was prosecuted before the courts, a packed and 
paid grand jury bringing against him ten 
indictments, and the minority presenting a 
strong counter report. The case never came to 
trial, though Wesley made seven fruitless ef- 
forts to have it tried. 

The prejudice excited against him by the 
chief magistrate and others became so strong 
that he could accomplish but little good among 
the people. 

In the midst of these conflicts he held every 
Sunday, from five to six, a prayer service in 
English; at nine, another in Italian; from 
10 :30 to 12 :30 he preached a sermon in Eng- 
lish and administered the communion; at one 
he held a service in French; at two he cate- 
chised the children; at three he held another 
service in English; still later he conducted a 
service in his own house, consisting of read- 
ing, prayer, and praise; and at six attended 
the Moravian service. 

He finally resolved, as his mission seemed 
at an end, to leave Georgia and return to 



Wicelc^ in Bmerfca. 69 

England. His public announcement of his 
purpose created great excitement among all 
classes. The magistrate forbade his departure. 
Williamson demanded that he give bail to an- 
swer the suit against him; but this he refused 
to do, telling them that he had sought seven 
times to have the case tried, but in vain, 
and that for the balance they could look after 
that. On the same night, after public prayers, 
with four men to accompany him, Wesley left 
Savannah, December 2, 1737, never more to 
return. They, took a small boat to Perrys- 
burg, a distance of some twelve miles. They 
then made their way on foot through swamps 
and forests, suffering untold hardships from 
cold, hunger, and thirst for four days, when 
they safely arrived at Port Eoyal. Here Dela- 
motte joined them, and all took boat for 
Charleston, where they arrived after four more 
days of toil. 

After spending a few days in Charleston 
Mr. Delamotte returned to Savannah, and on 
the 22d day of December Mr. Wesley set sail 
for England, where he safely arrived on 
the first day of the following February, the 
next day after Mr. Whitefield had sailed for 
America. 

Mr. Wesley did not regard his mission to 
America as a failure. He blessed God for 
having been carried to America, contrary to 
all his preceding resolutions. "Hereby I trust 



70 Gbe l^oung peopled WLesley. 

He hath, in some measure, humbled me and 
proved me, and shown me what was in my 
heart/' 

Mr. Whitefield writes, on his arrival in 
Georgia: "The work Mr. Wesley has done in 
America is inexpressible. His name is very 
precious among the people; and he has laid 
a foundation that I hope neither man nor dev- 
ils will ever be able to shake. O, that I may 
follow him as he followed Christ !" 



CHAPTER VII. 

wesley's religious experience. 

Mr. Wesley's religious experience deserves 
special notice. If he was raised up by God 
for any purpose, it was to revive spiritual 
Christianity, which included justification by 
faith, entire sanctification, and the witness of 
the Holy Spirit. To understand his own ex- 
perience on these doctrines is the object of this 
chapter. 

Let us first notice the external religious life 
which Mr. Wesley maintained prior to the 
wonderful change which occurred soon after 
his return from America. From his journals 
we learn that he said prayers both public and 
private, and read the Scriptures and other 
good books constantly. He experienced sen- 
sible comfort in reading a Kempis, resulting 
in an entire change in his conversation and 
life. He set apart two hours each day for 
religious retirement, and received the sacra- 
ment every week. He watched against every 
sin, whether in word or deed. He shook off all 
his trifling acquaintances, and was careful that 
every moment of his time should be improved. 
He not only watched over his own heart, but 



72 Gbe IPoung ipeople's TKIleale^* 

urged others to become religious. He visited 
those in prison, assisted the poor and sick, and 
did what he could with his presence and means 
for the souls and bodies of men. He deprived 
himself of all the superfluities and many of 
the necessaries of life that he might help 
others. He fasted twice each week, omitted 
no part of self-denial which he thought law- 
ful, and carefully used in public and private 
at every opportunity all the means of grace. 
For the doing of these things he became a by- 
word, but rejoiced that his name was cast out 
as evil. His sole aim was to do God's will and 
secure inward holiness. Sometimes he had joy, 
sometimes sorrow; sometimes the terror of the 
law alarmed him, and sometimes the comforts 
of the Gospel cheered him. He had many re- 
markable answers to prayer, and many sensible 
soul comforts. 

Let us next notice Mr. Wesley's estimate of 
his own religious state at this time. 

He found that he had not such faith in 
Christ as kept his heart from being troubled 
in time of danger, for in a storm he cried unto 
God every moment, but in a calm he did not. 
His words he discovered to be such as did not 
edify, especially his manner of speaking of his 
enemies. By these he was convinced of unbe- 
lief and pride. He gives a dark picture of his 
state at this time, much darker than the light 
of after years justified. "I went to America," 



WLeelev'6 IRcligione Bjpedence* 73 

he says, "to convert the Indians, but O, who 
shall convert me? O, who will deliver me 
from this fear of death ?" 

On landing in England he writes: "It is 
now two years and almost four months since 
I left my native country in order to teach 
the Georgia Indians the nature of Chris- 
tianity, but what have I learned myself in 
the meantime? Why, what I least of all ex- 
pected — that I, who went to America to con- 
vert others, was never myself converted to 
God." 

He further says : "This, then, have I learned 
in the ends of the earth — that I am fallen 
short of the glory of God, alienated from the 
life of God; I am a child of wrath, an heir of 
hell." 

In later years, when carefully reconsider- 
ing his early experience, Mr. Wesley was not 
disposed to form the same severe judgment of 
his religious state. He wisely added several 
qualifying remarks which should not be omit- 
ted when his early language is employed. He 
could not say that he was not converted at 
this time, or that he was a child of wrath. To 
the expression, "I was never myself converted 
to God," is added this note : "I am not sure of 
that," strongly intimating that he believed he 
was then converted. 

To the expression, "I am a child of wrath, 
an heir of hell," is added this note : "I believe 



74 Gbe Molina people's mcelc^ 

not." It seemed to his own mature judgment 
that he was not the wretched sinner he had 
fancied himself to be in those sad hours of 
his early history. He says, "I had then the 
faith of a servant, though not that of a son/' 
What he means by this expression may be 
gathered from a sermon which he preached 
some fifty years later. He says : "But what is 
the faith which is properly saving ? what brings 
eternal salvation to all those that keep it to the 
end? It is such a divine conviction of God 
and the things of God as even in its infant 
state enables everyone that possesses it to fear 
God and work righteousness. And whosoever 
in every nation believes thus far, the apostle 
declares, is accepted of him. He actually is at 
that very moment in a state of acceptance. 
But he is at present only a servant of God, 
not properly a son. Meantime let it be well 
observed that the 'wrath of God' no longer 
abideth on him. 

"Indeed, nearly fifty years ago, when the 
preachers commonly called Methodists began 
to preach that grand scriptural doctrine, sal- 
vation by faith, they were not sufficiently ap- 
prised of the difference between a servant and 
a child of God. They did not clearly under- 
stand that everyone who f eareth God and work- 
eth righteousness is accepted of him. In con- 
sequence of this they are apt to make sad the 
hearts of those whom God hath not made sad. 



TKHesleE'0 1Relt0tou5 ^Experience. 75 

For they frequently asked those who feared 
God, 'Do you know that your sins are forgiv- 
en V And upon their saying 'No,' immediately 
repeated, 'Then you are a child of the devil/ 
No, that does not follow. It might have been 
said (and it is all that can be said with pro- 
priety), 'Hitherto you are a servant; you are 
not a child of God/ The faith of a child is 
properly and directly a divine conviction 
whereby every child of God is enabled to tes- 
tify, 'The life that I now live I live by faith 
in the Son of God, who loved me and gave him- 
self for me.' And whosoever hath this, the 
Spirit of God witnesseth with his spirit that 
he is a child of God." 

Again he says : "The faith of a servant im- 
plies a divine evidence of the invisible world 
so far as it can exist without living experience. 
Whoever has attained this, the faith of a 
servant, 'feareth God and escheweth evil;' or, 
as is expressed by St. Peter, 'feareth God and 
worketh righteousness.' In consequence of 
which he is in a degree, as the apostle observes, 
'accepted with him.' Elsewhere he is described 
in these words : 'He that feareth God and keep- 
eth his commandments.' " 

A careful examination of these quotations 
will convince anyone that the difference in 
Mr. Wesley's opinion between being a servant 
and a son is not that one is converted and the 
other is not, not that one is accepted by God 



76 Gbe loung ipeople's Wesley 

and the other rejected, but that one has the 
direct witness of the Spirit that he is a child 
of God and the other has not. This was Wes- 
ley's religious state when he returned to Eng- 
land. He was not that lost soul, that heir of 
hell, which he reckoned himself to be, but an 
accepted servant of God without the direct 
witness of the Spirit to his sonship. 

Meeting Peter Bohler, February 7, 1738, he 
(Bohler) was made the instrument of a great 
blessing to his soul. Bohler was a Moravian, 
nine years the junior of Wesley; a most de- 
vout man, deeply versed in spiritual things, 
and well qualified to lead the earnest Oxford 
student into the path of peace. Wesley was 
astonished at the announcement of Bohler that 
true faith in Christ was inseparably attended 
by dominion over sin, and constant peace aris- 
ing from a sense of forgiveness. He could in no 
way accept the doctrine until he had first ex- 
amined the Scriptures and had heard the tes- 
timony of three witnesses adduced by Bohler. 
But what staggered him most was the doctrine 
of instantaneous conversion. This he could 
not accept. But a careful appeal to the Bible 
and the testimony of Bohler's witnesses set- 
tled the question. Thus "this man of erudi- 
tion," says Mr. Tyerman, "and almost anchor- 
ite piety sat at the feet of this godly German 
like a little child, and was content to be 
thought a fool that he might be wise." 



But the time drew near when the veil was 
to be rent, and he who had been for half a 
score of years a seeker was to behold the glo- 
ries of the inner temple. His brother Charles 
had already received the gift of the Spirit, 
and Whitefield was rejoicing in the same bless- 
ing; but John still lingered. He became so 
oppressed with his spiritual state that he 
thought of abandoning preaching; but Bohler 
said: "By no means. Preach faith till you 
have it, and then because you have it you will 
preach it." So he began. He uttered strong 
words at St. Lawrence's and St. Catherine's, 
and was informed that he could preach no more 
in either place. At Great St. Helen's he spoke 
with such plainness that he was told he must 
preach no more there. At St. Ann's he spoke' 
of free salvation by faith, and the doors of 
the church were closed against him. The same 
result attended his preaching at St. John's 
and St. Bennett's, until he found the words 
of a friend addressed to his brother true 
in his own case, that "wherever you go this 
'foolishness of pheaching' will alienate 
hearts from you and open mouths against 
you." 

The simplicity of faith staggered the youth- 
ful philosopher. Bohler, in writing of the 
Wesleys to Zinzendorf, says: "Our mode of 
believing in the Saviour is so easy to English- 
men that they cannot reconcile themselves to 



78 Gbe 12oun9 lpeople'6 TKaesleg. 

it; if it were a little more artful, they could 
much sooner find their way into it." 

Wesley's distress of soul continued until the 
24th of May. At five in the morning of that 
auspicious day he opened his Testament and 
read : "There are given unto us exceeding great 
and precious promises, that by these ye may be 
partakers of the divine nature." Later in the 
day he opened the word and read: "Thou art 
not far from the kingdom of God." Having 
attended St. Paul's Cathedral in the after- 
noon, where the anthem was a great comfort 
to his soul, he went with great reluctance to 
a society meeting at night at Aldersgate 
Street. There he found one reading Luther's 
preface to the Romans ; and at about a quarter 
before nine, while the change which God works 
in the heart through faith in Christ was being 
described, "I felt," he says, "my heart strange- 
ly warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ — 
Christ aione — for salvation; and an assur- 
ance was given me that he had taken away 
my sins, even mine, and saved me from the 
law of sin and death; and then I testified 
openly to all there what I now felt in my 
heart." 

From this moment a new spiritual world 
opened upon the mind and heart of John Wes- 
ley. He not only began at once to pray for 
those who had ill-used him, but openly testified 
to all present what God had done for his soul. 



mee\ev'& IReUatous Experience 79 

And from that hour onward, for fifty-three 
years, he bore through the land a heart flaming 
with love. 

In 1744, more than six years subsequent to 
that blessed experience at Aldersgate, Mr. Wes- 
ley relates another experience which we must 
not overlook. It is related in these words: 
"In the evening while I was reading prayers at 
Snowfield I found such light and strength as I 
never remember to have had before. I saw 
every thought, as well as action or word, just 
as it was rising in my heart, and whether it was 
right before God or tainted with pride or self- 
ishness. I never knew before — I mean not at 
this time — what it was to be still before God. 
I waked the next morning by the grace of God 
in the same spirit; and about eight, being 
with two or three that believed in Jesus, I felt 
such an awe and tender sense of the presence 
of God as greatly confirmed me therein; so 
that God was before me all the day long. I 
sought and found him in every place, and could 
truly say, when I lay down at night, 'Now I 
have lived to-day.' " 

In 1771, referring to this experience, he 
says: "Many years since I saw that 'without 
holiness no man shall see the Lord.' I began 
by following after it, and inciting all with 
whom I had any intercourse to do the same. 
Ten years after God gave me a clearer view 
than I had before of the way how to attain 



60 the iouna ipeopte's Mcelc^ 

it; namely, by faith in the Son of God. And 
immediately I declared to all, 'We are saved 
from sin, we are made holy, by faith. This I 
testified in private, in public, in print; and 
God confirmed it by a thousand witnesses. 
I have continued to declare this for about 
thirty years; and God has continued to 
confirm the work of grace." 

These experiences flamed out in his whole 
life. He claimed that he knew whereof 
he affirmed. While he advocated strongly 
the doctrines of Christianity, he was most ear- 
nest in promoting the experience of personal 
holiness. 

A question has been propounded here elic- 
iting much controversy, namely, "Did Mr. 
Wesley ever profess to have experienced the 
blessing of entire sanctification ?" It does not 
appear to us to be a question of as much im- 
portance as many seem to imagine. The more 
important question is : Did Mr. Wesley believe 
and teach that such an experience was possible 
in this life? Did he encourage his people 
to seek such a blessing, and, when obtained, 
profess it in a humble spirit? This question 
among others was submitted to Dr. James M. 
Buckley: "Have we any record of Mr. Wes- 
ley's professing to be entirely sanctified; if 
so, where may it be found?" His answer 
will be regarded as entirely satisfactory to 
all unprejudiced minds. 



Wesley's IReligious ^Experience. 81 

"This question reappears from time to time, 
as though of great importance. We know of 
no record of his explicitly professing or saying 
in so many words, 'I am entirely sanctified;' 
no record of uttering words to that effect. 
But we have no more doubt that he habitually 
professed it than that he professed conversion. 
The relation John Wesley sustained to his 
followers, and to this doctrine, makes it cer- 
tain that he professed it, and almost certain 
that there would be no special record of it. 

"1. All Wesley's followers assumed him to 
be what he urged them to be. Before they were 
in a situation to make records his position 
was so fixed that to record his descriptions of 
this state would have been unthought of. 

"2. He preached entire sanctification, and 
urged it upon his followers. 

"3. He defended its attainability in many 
public controversies. 

"4. He urged and defended the profession of 
it, under certain conditions and safeguards; 
made lists of professors ; told men they had lost 
it because they did not profess; and said and 
did so many things, only to be explained upon 
the assumption that he professed to enjoy the 
blessing, that no other opinion can support 
it."* 

Soon after this experience at Aldersgate 
Chapel Mr. Wesley made a journey to Herrn- 
* The Christian Advocate. 



82 Gbe IPoung fceopte's Wesley 

hut, Germany, to visit the Moravian brethren, 
but soon withdrew from them because of their 
errors in doctrine. He antagonized the dogma 
of Zinzendorf, that men are entirely sanc- 
tified at the moment when they are converted. 
His opinion of the count differed materially 
from his estimation of Bohler. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Wesley's multiplied labors. 

No sooner had Mr. Wesley experienced the 
transforming power of grace than he hastened 
to declare it to all, taking "the world" for his 
"parish." 

After confessing to those immediately about 
him what God had done for his soul he flew 
with all possible speed to declare it to the min- 
ers in their darkness, to the Newgate felons in 
their loathsome cells, to the wealthy and refined 
worshipers at St. John's and St. Ives', offering 
in burning words a common salvation alike to 
the Newgate felon and to the St. John's and 
St. Ives' aristocracy. 

Mr. Wesley was a most pertinacious adher- 
ent of the English Establishment, and never 
dreamed of attempting the salvation of souls 
by preaching the Gospel outside of her church 
walls until he was ruthlessly expelled from all 
her pulpits. But he had firmly resolved that 
neither bishops, nor curates, nor church war- 
dens should stand between him and duty. But 
what to do and where to go he did not know. 
Every door seemed closed against him, and 
almost every face save the face of God frowned 



84 Gbe !0oung ipeopie's Wicelc^ 

upon him. But while God smiled he knew no 
fear. In his extremity he took counsel of 
Whitefield, resulting in a firm purpose to do 
the work to which Providence seemed to have 
clearly called them. Churches were closed, to 
be sure, but the unsaved and perishing were 
everywhere except in the churches, and to 
reach and to save them they betook themselves 
to the wide, wide world. They were now seen 
in hospitals, administering spiritual comfort 
to the sick; in prisons, offering eternal life to 
condemned felons; at Kingswood, calling the 
dark colliers to a knowledge of the truth. In 
these places unfrequented by sacerdotal robes 
the Gospel of the grace of God was carried by 
these unhonored servants of Jesus. But soon 
prisons and hospitals were denied them, and 
then they fled to the fields and to the streets 
of the cities, choosing for their pulpits the 
market-house steps, a horse-block, a coal heap, 
a table, a stone wall, a mountain side, a horse's 
back, etc. 

The colliers of Kingswood had no church, 
no Sabbath, no Gospel. They were the most 
corrupt, degraded, blasphemous class to be 
found in England. Southey describes them as 
"lawless, brutal, and worse than heathen." 
They seemed to have been forsaken of God 
and man. This was a fit place to test the power 
of "the Gospel of the grace of God." The in- 
trepid Whitefield was the first to break the 



WLeele&s dfculttplieD ^Labors. 85 

ice. "Pulpits are denied," he says, "and the 
poor colliers are ready to perish." So he un- 
furled the Gospel banner "with a mountain 
for his pulpit," he says, "and the broad heavens 
for a sounding-board." 

The Wesleys are lifting up their voices like 
trumpets in all parts of the kingdom. They 
are threading their way along the mountains 
of Wales, where the people know as little of 
Christianity as do the wild Indians of our 
Western plains. They are seen in Ireland, in 
all her towns and cities, calling her papal- 
cursed sons to a knowledge of Jesus. Again 
their voices are heard amid the hills and vales 
of Scotland, urging her stern clans to accept 
Jesus by faith alone. Then they are surround- 
ed by tens of thousands of besmeared miners 
who are weeping for sin and rejoicing in deliv- 
erance from it. 

Mr. Wesley and John Nelson for three 
weeks labored to introduce the Gospel into 
Cornwall. During this time they slept on the 
floor. Nelson says that Mr. Wesley had his 
great coat for his pillow, while Nelson had 
Burkitt's Notes on the New Testament for 
his. After they had been there nearly three 
weeks, one morning about three o'clock, Mr. 
Wesley turned over, and finding Nelson awake, 
clapped him on his side, saying, "Brother 
Nelson, let us be of good cheer; I have one 
whole side yet, for the skin is off but one side." 



86 Gbe ^outtfl peopled meelev. 

As they were leaving Cornwall Mr. Wesley 
stopped his horse to pick blackberries, saying, 
"Brother Nelson, we ought to be thankful that 
there are plenty of blackberries, for this is the 
best country I ever saw to get an appetite and 
the worst place to provide means to satisfy 
it." Still they courageously pushed forward, 
with the one purpose of saving men. 

That we may aid the reader in getting a 
clearer and more comprehensive conception 
of the immense amount of labor performed 
by Mr. Wesley, we will arrange it under dis- 
tinct heads: 

1. His travels were immense. He averaged, 
during a period of fifty-four years, about five 
thousand miles a year, some say eight, making 
in all at least some two hundred and ninety 
thousand miles, a distance equal to circum- 
navigating the globe about twelve times. It 
must not be forgotten that most of this travel 
was performed on horseback. Think of riding 
around the globe on horseback twelve times! 

2. The amount of his preaching was unpar- 
alleled. Mr. Wesley preached not less than 
twenty sermons a week — frequently many 
more. These sermons were delivered mostly 
in the open air and under circumstances cal- 
culated to test the nerve of the most vigorous 
frame. He did, in the matter of preaching, 
what no other man ever did — he preached on 
an average, for a period of fifty-four years. 



WLeeley'e dfcultiplteD labors. 87 

fifteen sermons a week, making in all forty- 
two thousand four hundred, besides numberless 
exhortations and addresses on a great variety 
of occasions. 

A minister in these times does well to preach 
one hundred sermons a year. At this rate, to 
preach a& many sermons as Mr. Wesley did, 
such a minister must live and preach four 
hundred and twenty-four years. Think of a 
minister preaching two sermons each week 
day and three each Sabbath for fifty-four 
years, and some idea can be formed of Mr. 
Wesley's labors in this department. 

3. His literary labors were extraordinary. 
While traveling five thousand miles and more 
a year, or at least about fourteen miles a day, 
and preaching two sermons, and frequently 
five, each day, he read extensively. He read 
not less than two thousand two hundred vol- 
umes on all subjects, many of the volumes 
folios, after the old English style. His jour- 
nals show that he read not only to under- 
stand, but to severely criticise his author as 
well. 

The number of his publications will scarce- 
ly be credited by those who are not familiar 
with them, especially when we consider the 
amount of time he spent in traveling and 
preaching, and the urgency of his engage- 
ments, both of a public and private nature. 

He wrote and published grammars of the 



88 Gbe J^oung people's meeley. 

Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French, and English 
languages. 

He was for many years editor of a monthly 
periodical of fifty-six pages, known as the 
Arminian Magazine, requiring the undivid- 
ed attention of any ordinary man in these 
times. 

He wrote, abridged, revised, and published 
a library of fifty volumes known as the Chris- 
tian Library, one of the most remarkable 
collections of Christian literature of the 
times. He subsequently reread and revised 
the whole work with great care, and it was 
afterward published in thirty volumes — a mar- 
vel of excellence and industry. 

He published an abridgment of Mosheim's 
Ecclesiastical History, with important addi- 
tions, in four volumes. 

He published an abridgment of the History 
of England, in four volumes. 

He compiled and published a Compendium 
of Natural Philosophy, in five volumes. 

He arranged and published a collection of 
moral and sacred poems, in three volumes. 

He published an abridgment of Milton's 
Paradise Lost, with notes. He published an 
abridgment of Young's Night Thoughts. 

He wrote and published a commentary on 
the whole Bible in four large volumes, but the 
portion on the Old Testament was rendered 
almost worthless by the abridgment of the 



Wicelc^B rtfcultipltefc Xabore. 89 

notes by the printer in order to get them with- 
in a given compass. 

He compiled a complete dictionary of the 
English language, much used in his day. He 
compiled and published a history of Kome. 
He published selections from the Latin classics 
for the use of students. 

He published an abridgment of Goodwin's 
Treatise of Justification. He abridged and 
published in two volumes Brooke's Fool of 
Quality. 

He wrote a good-sized work on electricity. 
He prepared and published three medical 
works for the common people; one entitled 
Primitive Physic was highly esteemed in the 
old country. He compiled and published six 
volumes of church music. His poetical works, 
in connection with those of his brother 
Charles, are said to have amounted to not 
less than forty volumes. Charles composed the 
larger part, but they passed under the revision 
of John, without which we doubt if Charles 
Wesley's hymns would have been what they 
are — the most beautiful and soul-inspiring in 
the English language. 

In addition to all this there are seven large 
octavo volumes of sermons, letters, contro- 
versial papers, journals, etc. It is said that 
Mr. Wesley's works, including translations 
and abridgments, amounted to more than two 
hundred volumes, for we have not given here 



90 Gbe J^oung {people's Wesley. 

a complete list of his publications. To this 
must be added : 

4. His pastoral labors. It is doubtful if 
any pastor in these times does more pastoral 
work than did Mr. Wesley. He speaks fre- 
quently of these labors. In London he visits 
all the members, and from house to house ex- 
horts and comforts them. For some time he 
visited all the "Bands" and "Select Societies," 
appointing all the band and class leaders. He 
had under his personal care tens of thousands 
of souls. 

To these multiplied labors he added the es- 
tablishment of schools, building of chapels, 
raising of funds to carry on the work, and a 
special care over the whole movement. It may 
be affirmed that neither in his travels, his lit- 
erary labors, his preaching, nor in his pas- 
toral supervision of the flock of Christ has he 
often, if ever, been surpassed. "Few men 
could have traveled as much as he, had they 
omitted all else. Few could have preached as 
much without either travel or study. And few 
could have written and published as much had 
they avoided both travel and preaching." It 
is not too much to say that among uninspired 
men one of more extraordinary character than 
John Wesley never lived! 

It may be asked, How was he able to accom- 
plish so much ? He improved every moment of 
every day to the very best advantage. 



Weele&e /DbulttplteD Xabors* 91 

Mr. Fletcher, who for some time was his 
traveling companion, says: "His diligence is 
matchless. Though oppressed with the weight 
of seventy years and the care of more than 
thirty thousand souls, he shames still, by his 
unabated zeal and immense labors, all the 
young ministers of England, perhaps of Chris- 
tendom. He has generally blown the Gospel 
trumpet and ridden twenty miles before the 
most of the professors who despise his labors 
have left their downy pillows. As he begins 
the day, the week, the year, so he concludes 
them, still intent upon extensive services for 
the glory of the Redeemer and the good of 
souls." 

In order to save time he, in the first place, 
ascertained how much sleep he needed; and 
when once settled he never varied from it to 
the end of life. He rose at four in the 
morning and retired at ten in the evening, 
never losing at any time, he says, "ten minutes 
by wakefulness." The first hour of each day 
was devoted to private devotions; then every 
succeeding hour and moment was employed 
in earnest labor. His motto was, "Always in 
haste, but never in a hurry." "I have," he 
says, "no time to be in a hurry. Leisure and 
I have taken leave of each other." 

He makes the remarkable statement that ten 
thousand cares were no more weight to hi3 
mind than ten thousand hairs to his head. "I 



92 Gbe Noting people's 11Xtle&leE. 

am never tired with writing, preaching, or 
traveling." 

"With all his travel, labor, and care, he de- 
clares that he "enjoyed more hours of private 
retirement than any man in England." 

At the beginning of his extraordinary career 
he became the most rigid economist. Having 
thirty pounds a year, he lived on twenty-eight, 
and gave away two. The next year he received 
sixty pounds; he still lived on twenty-eight, 
and gave away thirty-two. The following year, 
out of ninety pounds, he gave away sixty-two, 
and the next year ninety-two pounds out of 
one hundred and twenty- 



CHAPTER IX. 



Divine Providence seems to indicate that 
some men are ordained or set apart to celibacy ; 
that the special work to which they are par- 
ticularly called is such as to make it necessary 
that they should abstain from that otherwise 
legal, sacred, and highly honorable conjugal 
relation. Not that this duty is restricted to 
any order of the clergy — as in the Eomish 
Church — but to particular persons in all the 
Churches who are divinely selected for special 
work. This was the case with Elijah and 
Elisha, with John the Baptist and St. Paul. 
To John Wesley in the Old World, and Bishop 
Asbury in the New, Providence seems to have 
indicated this course of life, though Wesley 
was slow to see it, and did not until his sad 
experience made it clear to him. 

Though the world was his parish, he had 
a heart of love which craved deep, pure, soul 
companionship. He was made to love. Though 
he was a lamb in gentleness, he was a lion in 
courage. He was as daring as Richard the 
Lion-hearted, or as Ney or Murat, in the bat- 



94 Gbe ^oung people's WLesley. 

tie, yet he had a heart as simple as a child and 
as affectionate as an angel. He loved every- 
body. He was strongly attached to his mother, 
his sisters, and brothers. He clung ardently 
to his old associates, though they sometimes 
ill-treated him. With such a man a homeless, 
single life could only be submitted to under a 
sense of imperative duty. 

After forty-seven years of single life, being 
of the opinion that he could be more useful in 
the married life than to remain single, and 
after first consulting his lifelong friend, Rev. 
Mr. Perronet, vicar of Shoreham, who fully 
approved his course, he then looked about to 
see who was a suitable person to become his 
helpmate. After a time he firmly believed he 
had found the proper one in the person of Mrs. 
Grace Murray, of Newcastle. She was the 
widow of Alexander Murray, of Scotland. 

Mrs. Murray had been converted, while on a 
visit to London, under the ministry of Mr. 
Whitefield and the Wesleys. She at once 
joined the Methodists, abandoned all worldly 
and fashionable society, and devoted herself 
to the cause of God. It is true she was not 
allied to the aristocracy, and her husband fol- 
lowed the sea. Her husband, when he learned 
of her change, became greatly enraged, think- 
ing all his pleasures were at an end, and 
threatened, if she did not abandon the Metho- 
dists and return to her former course of life, 



Wesley's Domestic delations. 95 

that he would commit her to the madhouse. 
This nearly broke her heart, and under its 
influence she became prostrated and sick nigh 
unto death. Her husband, seeing the effects 
of his treatment, relented, and invited the 
Methodists to come to his house and pray for 
his dying wife. Under a change of treatment, 
and the blessing of God, she recovered. The 
husband soon after left for a sea voyage, 
was taken sick, died, and was buried in the 
ocean. She sadly mourned his untimely death, 
for, in the main, he was a kind husband. 

It was about this time that Mr. Wesley be- 
came acquainted with her, and recognized in 
her a valuable helper. She seems to have been 
a charming lady. Her deep piety, simplicity 
of character, amiable disposition, remarkable 
zeal, and active charity attracted his atten- 
tion. He maintained at Newcastle a Preach- 
ers' House for himself and his preachers while 
in the city. He had there, also, an asylum for 
orphans and widows, for whom he made pro- 
vision. Over this institution he installed Mrs. 
Murray as housekeeper. Finding her admi- 
rably suited to this work, especially among 
females, he appointed her class leader. She 
then, under his direction, visited the female 
classes in Bristol, London, etc. Her duty was 
to regulate the classes, organize female bands, 
and inspire her sisters to deeper piety and 
more active benevolence. Her devotion and 



96 Gbe J^oung peopled TKHesle^. 

unassuming manners won the affection of the 
people. They hailed her coming with a 
thousand welcomes, and parted with her with 
regret. 

Mr. Wesley observed her spirit and labors, 
and began to feel that she was the providential 
companion for him — a real helpmate. Her 
tastes, temperament, and mission seemed to 
be one with his own. Without hesitation or 
reserve he offered her his hand. It was ac- 
cepted with great cheerfulness. She declared 
herself ready to go with him to the ends of the 
earth, and esteemed it a great honor to be 
allied to him. 

The marriage was to be celebrated in Octo- 
ber, 1749. But on the first day of that month 
he met Charles Wesley and Mr. Whitefield at 
Leeds, and received the astounding intelli- 
gence from them that Grace Murray was mar- 
ried the night before, at Newcastle, to John 
Bennett — one of Wesley's preachers — and that 
they had been present and witnessed the mar- 
riage ceremony. 

This singular affair has never been satis- 
factorily explained. It is evident that Charles 
Wesley and Mr. Whitefield for some cause en- 
couraged the marriage of Mrs. Murray with 
Mr. Bennett; but what their motive could 
have been is not known. Several reasons have 
been given, but none seem worthy of the men. 
Whatever their motive, it must be acknowl- 




WESLEY S CLOCK. 



Weales's domestic IRelatlous. 97 

edged to have been entirely unjustifiable. The 
conduct of the lady was equally inexplicable, 
and must ever remain so. 

In this trying affair we cannot but admire 
the conduct of Mr. Wesley. Knowing the part 
that Mr. Whitefield had taken in the matter, 
he went the next morning to hear him preach, 
and speaks in high terms of his sermon. The 
day following he preached himself at Leeds in 
the morning, and in the afternoon met Mr. 
and Mrs. Bennett, and of the meeting he writes 
to a friend, "Such a scene I think you never 
saw." They never met again, except in Lon- 
don in 1788, when Mr. Wesley was eighty-five 
years of age, and when Mrs. Bennett had 
been a widow for nearly twenty-nine years. 
The meeting was brief, and no mention was 
made of former years. 

Mr. Bennett was treated by Mr. Wesley with 
the utmost kindness. He, however, became 
an enemy of Mr. Wesley, withdrew from the 
Connection, and joined the Calvinists. He 
lived ten years, and died, leaving Mrs. Bennett 
a widow with five children, the eldest not eight 
years old. She lived a widow for nearly forty- 
four years. She subsequently returned to the 
Wesleyan Methodists, held class meetings in 
her house, and had the reputation of being a 
woman of excellent character and deep piety. 
She died February 23, 1803. Her last words 
were, "Glory be to thee, my God; peace thou 
1 



98 Gbe l^oung peopled mcslev. 

givest." Dr. Bunting preached her funeral 
sermon. Whoever reads Mr. Tyerman's ac- 
count of these events should also read Dr. 
Kigg's Living Wesley, in order to get an un- 
biased account of this transaction. 

Mr. Wesley, baffled in his first attempt, and 
still believing it was his duty to marry, made 
a second effort; and this time he offered his 
hand to Mrs. Vazeille, the widow of a London 
merchant. She readily accepted the proposal, 
and the marriage was at once consummated. 
Says a recent writer, "He married a widow, 
and caught a tartar." She was a lady of in- 
dependent fortune, with four children. Mr. 
Wesley declined to have anything to do with 
her wealth, and had it all settled upon herself 
and her children. 

She was a woman of good standing in soci- 
ety, and was supposed to be a suitable person 
for the position she assumed. She was agree- 
able in person and quite faultless in manner, 
and could easily make herself useful to all 
classes. But appearances are said to be de- 
ceptive; at least it proved so in this case. 
She seems to have possessed a temper which, 
when aroused, was utterly uncontrollable. 

Not four months of married life had passed 
before she began to complain of her husband. 
Before their marriage she agreed that he 
should not be expected to travel a mile less, or 
preach one sermon less, than before their 



TKttesleg's domestic delations. 99 

union. But now she began to complain of 
everything — long journeys, bad roads, and poor 
fare. She was not willing to remain at home, 
for then she was without the attention she 
had a right to receive; and when he was at 
home he was preaching two or three times a 
day, visiting the sick, looking after the socie- 
ties, and carrying on extensive correspondence. 
From fancying herself neglected by her hus- 
band she became jealous of him — a most ab- 
surd and insane idea. But on this her insanity 
knew no bounds. She is said to have traveled 
a hundred miles in order to intercept him at 
some town, and watch from a window to ascer- 
tain who might be in the carriage with him. 
She went so far as to open his private letters 
and abstract his papers and place them in the 
hands of those who would use them to his dam- 
age. She would add to his letters — usually 
those from his female correspondents — to make 
them appear to contain words of questionable 
character. She used the newspapers to blacken 
his reputation. She went so far at times as to 
lay violent hands upon him, tear his hair, and 
otherwise abuse him. Said Mr. Hampson (who 
was not one of Mr. Wesley's warmest friends) 
to his son one day: "Jack, I was once on the 
point of committing murder. When I was 
in the north of Ireland I went into a room, 
and found Mrs. Wesley flaming with fury. 
Her husband was on the floor, where she had 

LofC. 



loo Gbe loung fl>eople'6 WLe&ley. 

been trailing him by the hair of his head; she 
herself was still holding in her hand venerable 
locks which she had plucked up by the roots. 
I felt," said the gigantic Hampson, "as 
though I could have knocked the soul out of 
her." Even Southey says: "Fain would she 
have made him, like Mark Antony, give up all 
for love ; and, being disappointed in that hope, 
she tormented him in such a manner by her 
outrageous jealousy and abominable temper 
that she deserved to be classed in a triad with 
Xantippe and the wife of Job as one of the 
three bad wives." But finally she gathered 
up a quantity of his journals and other papers 
and left him, never to return. The only rec- 
ord which the good man makes is this : "I did 
not forsake her; I did not dismiss her; I will 
not recall her." 

Wesley may not have been in all respects in 
this matter faultless. But no one could ever 
affirm that he was wanting in genuine affec- 
tion. Charles Wesley, who knew the inward- 
ness of all John's domestic troubles, affirms 
that "nothing could surpass my brother's pa- 
tience with his perverse, peevish spouse." 

Mrs. Wesley died in 1781, and the church peo- 
ple had it inscribed upon her tombstone that 
she was "a woman of exemplary piety." "But," 
says the late Professor Sheppard, "you know 
a tombstone is like a corporation — it has no 
body to be burned, and no soul to be damned." 



CHAPTER X. 
Wesley's persecutions. 

Had the immense labors of John Wesley 
noted in a former chapter been performed 
under public patronage, cheered on by all, 
they would have seemed less arduous. Men 
may prosecute a reform when public opinion 
favors it with comparative ease, but with less 
entitlement to honor than he has a right to 
claim who does it in the face of passion and 
interest. The labors of John Wesley were 
prosecuted in the teeth of opposition such as 
seldom falls to the lot of man to endure. And 
what made it more dastardly and cruel was the 
fact that it was instigated and principally con- 
ducted by the officials of that Church of which 
he was a worthy member and ordained minis- 
ter to the day of his death. 

It is a sad fact, but nevertheless true, that 
most of the opposition and persecution encoun- 
tered by reformers and revivalists have come 
from the churchmen of the times. It has been 
the Church opposing those who were honestly 
seeking her own reformation. When the 
Church substitutes forms for godliness, and 
devotes herself to ecclesiasticism instead of 



102 Gbe H>ouit0 people's WLeelev. 

soul-saving, and place-seeking takes the place 
of piety, she is ready to resist all efforts for her 
restoration to spirituality as irregular and 
offensive. 

No sooner had Wesley exposed the sins of 
the Church, especially those of the pulpit, than 
the pulpit denounced him; and the press, tak- 
ing its keynote from the pulpit, thundered as 
though the "abomination of desolation" had 
actually "taken possession of the holy place." 
Then the idle rabble rushed to the front, and 
mob violence and mob law were the order of 
the hour. 

The flaming denunciations of the pulpits of 
the Establishment against Mr. Wesley and his 
people have never been surpassed in the history 
of the English nation. Wesley says : "We were 
everywhere represented as mad dogs, and 
treated accordingly. In sermons, newspapers, 
and pamphlets of all kinds we were painted as 
unheard-of monsters. But this moved us not ; 
we went on testifying salvation by faith both 
to small and great, and not counting our lives 
dear to ourselves, so we might finish our course 
with peace." 

The Wesleys were represented as "bold 
movers of sedition and ringleaders of the 
rabble, to the disgrace of their order." They 
were denounced by learned divines as "rest- 
less deceivers of the people," "babblers," "in- 
solent pretenders," "men of spiritual sleight 



Wesley's persecution. 103 

and cunning craftiness." They were guilty of 
"indecent, false, and unchristian reflections on 
the clergy." They were "new-fangled teach- 
ers," "rash, uncharitable censurers," "intrud- 
ing into other men's labors," and running 
"into wild fancies until the pale of the Church 
is too strait for them." They were "half dis- 
senters in the Church, and more dangerous to 
the Church than those who were total dis- 
senters from it." 

Bishop Gibson declared that they endeav- 
ored "to justify their own extraordinary meth- 
ods of teaching by casting unworthy reflections 
upon the parochial clergy as deficient in the 
discharge of their duty, and not instructing 
the people in the true doctrines of Chris- 
tianity." 

Even Dr. Doddridge is not at all "satisfied 
with the high pretenses they make to the 
divine influence." Dr. Trapp is bold in pro- 
nouncing them "a set of crack-brained enthu- 
siasts and profane hypocrites." 

The Weekly Miscellany denounces Wesley 
as the "ringleader, fomenter, and first cause 
of all divisions and feuds that have happened 
in Oxford, London, Bristol, and other places 
where he has been." He manages by "preach- 
ing, bookselling, wheedling, and sponging 
to get, it is believed, an income of £700 a 
year, some say £1,000. This is priestcraft to 
perfection." \ 



104 Gbe H?outt0 ipeople'6 Wesley. 

Further on in life he is accused of "making 
unwarrantable dissensions in the Church," 
and "prejudicing the people wherever he comes 
against his brethren the clergy." He is a 
"sower and ringleader of dissension, endeavor- 
ing with unwearied assiduity to set the flock 
at variance with their ministers and each 
other," assuming to himself "great wisdom 
and high attainments in all spiritual knowl- 
edge." "You go," says this writer, "from one 
end of the nation to another lamenting the 
heresies of your brethren, and instilling into 
the people's minds that they are led into error 
by their pastors." 

"It was Mr. Wesley's fidelity," says Mr. 
Tyerman, "far more than the novelties of his 
doctrines and proceedings that brought upon 
him the persecution he encountered." 

The former friends of Wesley now turned 
against him on points merely doctrinal. No 
one can read the invectives of Sir Kichard and 
Eev. Kowland Hill, Sir Walter Shirley and 
Rev. Augustus Toplady, without feelings of 
great astonishment. When Mr. Wesley had 
passed his threescore years and ten Mr. Top- 
lady, a young man of thirty, attacked him in 
the most violent manner, employing epithets 
of the most abusive character. We select the 
following as samples from the many. Wesley 
is accused of the "sophistry of the Jesuit and 
the dictatorial authority of a pope." He is a 



WLcslev'6 ipereecutions. 105 

"lurking, sly assassin," guilty of "audacity and 
falsehood;" a "knave," guilty of "mean, ma- 
licious impotence." He is an "Ishmaelite," a 
"bigot," a "papist," a "defamer," a "reviler," 
a "liar," without the "honesty of a heathen;" 
an "impudent slanderer," with "Satanic guilt 
only exceeded by Satan himself, if even by 
him." He is an "echo of Satan." 

Eobert Hall well said, "I would not incur 
the guilt of that virulent abuse which Toplady 
cast upon him [Wesley], for points merely 
speculative and of very little importance, for 
ten thousand worlds." 

Poets who should have sung for Jesus pros- 
tituted their gifts and burdened their songs 
with the bitterest invectives against Wesley 
and his people. 

One entitles his poem "Perfection: a prac- 
tical epistle, calmly addressed to the greatest 
hypocrite in England — that person being John 
Wesley." 

Another poem was entitled "Methodism Dis- 
played: a satire, illustrated and verified from 
John Wesley's fanatical Journals." 

Another, entitled "The Mechanic Inspired: 

or, The Methodists' Welcome to Rome." As a 

specimen of this delectable production we give 

the following stanza: 

Ye dupes of sly, Romish, itinerant liars, 

The spawn of French prophets and mendicant friars ; 

Ye pious enthusiasts ! who riot and rob 

With holy grimace and sanctified sob. 



106 Gbe HJounfl ipeople's mcalev. 

Another, "The Methodist and Mimic." 
Still another, "The Methodist, a poem." In 
this production Mr. Wesley is described as 
being nursed on "demoniac milk," and as one 
who 

Had Moorfield trusted to his care, 
For Satan keeps an office there. 

Another, entitled "The Troublers of Israel; 
in which the principles of those who turn the 
world upside down are displayed." 

Another, in which the writer exhorts Wes- 
ley to 

Haste hence to Rome, thy proper place, 
Why should we share in thy disgrace? 
We need no greater proof to see 
Thy blasphemies with his agree. 

And yet another, entitled "Wesley's Apos- 
tasy," etc., in which occurs this verse, among 
others equally bad: 

In vain for worse may Wesley search the globe, 
A viper hatched beneath the harlot's robe ; 
Rome in her glory has no greater boast, 
Than Wesley aims — to all conviction lost. 

This may answer for the poets, though their 
number is nearly legion. 

Artists employed their God-given powers in 
traducing Wesley and his people. 

William Hogarth published a painting and 
engraving entitled "Credulity, Superstition, 
and Fanaticism, being a satire on Methodism." 



WLesle&e persecutions. 107 

Comedians, who are generally ready to lend 
themselves to any vile work, employed the 
stage to blacken the character of Wesley. 

Samuel Foote, an actor, wrote a play en- 
titled "The Minor, a Comedy," in which the 
Methodists were ridiculed and slandered. 

Samuel Pottenger wrote a play entitled 
"The Methodist, a Comedy." Another was soon 
after produced — "The Hypocrite, a Comedy, 
as it was performed in the Theater Eoyal, 
Drury Lane." 

Thus pulpit, press, pencil, and stage united 
to crush Wesley and his people. No means 
were left untried. Though they followed him 
through all his active ministerial life, yet the 
gates of hell did not and could not prevail 
against him and his work. 

Mob Violence. 

When pulpit, press, and stage combine to 
crush vital Christianity they soon arouse an 
ally in the ignorant, restless, unholy masses, 
ever ready to aid in forwarding the work of 
the Prince of Darkness. 

When pulpits in London, Bristol, Bath, and, 
in fact, everywhere were closed against Wesley 
one of two ways was open before him — he must 
either abandon the work to which he was sure 
God had called him, or he must break over 
ecclesiastical rules and go outside the churches. 
He was not long choosing. 



108 Gbe loung ipeople'6 Wesley 

A good-sized volume could be filled with ac- 
counts of mob violence which came upon Wes- 
ley and his people, but we have space for a 
few cases only, which must be taken as samples 
of the many. 

While preaching at Moorfield a mob met 
him, broke down the table on which he stood, 
and in various ways abused and insulted him. 
Nothing daunted, he mounted a stone wall 
near by and exhorted the people until silence 
was restored. He often found himself here in 
the midst of a sea of human passion, the crowds 
frequently numbering from twenty to forty 
thousand. 

At Sheffield hell from beneath seemed moved 
to meet him at his coming. As he was wont to 
do, he took his stand out of doors and faced the 
crowd. In the midst of his sermon a military 
officer rushed upon him, brandishing a sword, 
and threatening his life. Wesley faced him, 
threw open his breast, and bade him do as he 
liked. The officer cowered. 

The preaching house was completely demol- 
ished over the heads of the devout worshipers. 
Wesley says: "It was a glorious time. Many 
found the Spirit of glory and of God resting 
upon them." The next day, nothing daunted, 
he was in the midst of the town, preaching the 
great salvation. The mob assembled, followed 
him to his lodgings, smashed in the windows, 
and threatened to take his life. But while the 



mesley'e persecutions. 109 

mob was howling without like beasts of prey 
Wesley was so little disturbed that he fell into 
a quiet slumber. 

At Wednesbury an organized mob went to 
nearly all the Methodist families in town, beat- 
ing and abusing men, women, and children. 
They spoiled their wearing apparel and cut 
open their beds and scattered the contents, 
leaving whole families houseless and home- 
less in midwinter and under the peltings of a 
pitiless storm. The people were informed 
that if they would sign a paper agreeing never 
to read or sing or pray together, or hear 
the Methodists preach again, their houses 
should not be demolished. A few complied, 
but the greater number answered, "We 
have already lost our goods, and nothing 
more can follow but the loss of our lives, 
which we will lose also rather than wrong our 
consciences." 

A few days after, Wesley rode boldly into 
Wednesbury, and in a public park in the center 
of the town proclaimed to an immense crowd 
"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, 
and forever." The mob assembled, arrested 
him, and dragged him before a magistrate, who 
inquired, "What have Mr. Wesley and the 
Methodists done?" 

"Why, plaze your worship," cried one, "they 
sing psalms all day and make folks get up at 
five o'clock in the morning. Now, what would 



no the Wonng people's WLeelev. 

your worship advise us to do?" "Go home," 
replied the magistrate, "and be quiet." 

Not satisfied with this, they hurried him off 
to another magistrate. A few friends followed, 
but were soon beaten back by a Walsall mob, 
which rushed upon them like wild beasts. All 
but four of Wesley's friends were vanquished. 
These stood by him to the last. One of these 
was a brave woman whose English blood boiled 
over. She is said to have knocked down four 
Walsall men one after another, and would have 
laid them all sprawling at her feet had not 
four brawny men seized her and held her while 
a fifth beat her until they were quite ashamed 
to be seen — five men beating one woman ! * 

The mob tried to throw Wesley down, that 
they might trample him under their feet. 
They struck at him with clubs, and must have 
nearly killed him had they hit him. They cried, 
"Knock his brains out!" "Drown him!" "Kill 
the dog!" "Throw him into the river!" One 
cried, "Crucify him ! crucify him !" 

During all this Wesley was calm. It only 
came into his mind, he says, that if they should 
throw him into the river it might spoil the 
papers in his pocket. He finally escaped out 
of their hands, and, meeting his brother at 
Nottingham, Charles says that he "looked like 
a soldier of Christ. His clothes were torn to 
tatters." Subsequently the leader of that mob 
was converted, and being asked by Charles 



meele&e ftersecutions, ill 

Wesley what he thought of his brother, "I 
think," said he, "that he was a mon of God, 
and God was with him, when so many of us 
could not kill one monl" 

While preaching at Eoughlee a drunken 
rabble assembled, led on by a godless constable. 
Wesley was arrested and taken before a magis- 
trate. On the way he was struck on the face 
and head, and clubs were flourished about his 
person with threats of murder. The justice 
demanded that he promise not to come to 
Eoughlee again. Wesley answered that he 
would sooner cut off his head than make such 
a promise. As he departed from the magis- 
trate the mob followed, cursing him and throw- 
ing stones. Wesley was beaten to the earth 
and forced back into the house. Mr. Mack- 
ford, who came with Mr. Wesley from New- 
castle, was dragged by the hair of his head, 
and sustained injuries from which he never 
fully recovered. Some of the Methodists pres- 
ent were beaten with clubs, others trampled in 
the mire; one was forced to leap from a rock 
ten or twelve feet high into the river, and 
others escaped with their lives under a shower 
of missiles. The magistrate witnessed all this 
with apparent satisfaction, without any at- 
tempt to stay the murderous tide. 

At another place a crowd assembled, arrested 
a number of Methodists, and dragged them be- 
fore a magistrate, who inquired, "What have 



112 Gbe l^oung peopled WLeslev. 

the Methodists done?" "Why, your worship," 
said one, "these people profess to be better 
than anybody else. They pray all the time, 
by day and by night." "Is that all they have 
done?" asked the magistrate. "No, sir," 
answered an old man, "may it please your 
worship, they have converted my wife. Till 
she went with them she had such a tongue! 
Now she is as quiet as a lamb." "Carry them 
back, carry them back," said the magistrate, 
"and let them convert all the scolds in town !" 
At Bristol the mob cursed and swore and 
shouted while the preacher declared the Gospel. 
A Catholic priest in the congregation shouted, 
"Thou art a hypocrite, a devil, an enemy to the 
Church." 

These are a few examples of what occurred 
almost daily, and that for many years. At 
Poole, at Lichfield, at St. Ives, at Grimsby, at 
Cork, at Wenlock, at Athlone, at Dudley, and 
at many other places he encountered similar 
opposition, until the presence of a Methodist 
preacher was the signal for a mob. Many of 
the preachers were impressed into the army on 
the pretense that their occupation was irregu- 
lar and their lives vagabondish. But wherever 
they went they were true to God and to the 
faith as they felt it in their hearts. 

The cause of all this opposition was the 
preaching of justification by faith, entire sanc- 
tification, and the urging of clergy and laity to 




SAMUEL WESLEY'S GRAVE, UPON WHICH JOHN 
PREACHED HIS FAMOUS SERMON. 



meeletfe {persecutions. H3 

a holy life. Thomas Olivers tells Kichard Hill 
that the man he had maligned was one who 
had published a hundred volumes, who had 
traveled yearly five thousand miles, preached 
yearly about one thousand sermons, visited 
as many sick beds as he had preached sermons, 
and written twice as many letters; and who, 
though now between seventy and eighty years 
of age, absolutely refused to abate in the 
smallest degree these mighty labors ; but might 
be seen at this very time, with his silver locks 
about his ears, and with a meager, worn-out, 
skeleton body, smiling at storms and tempests, 
at such difficulties and dangers as "I believe 
would be absolutely intolerable to you, sir, in 
conjunction with any four of your most 
flaming ministers." 

Such is John Wesley in his persecutions. 
We who claim to be followers of Wesley, and 
who glory in the rich fruit of these unex- 
ampled labors, sufferings, and sacrifices, might 
with propriety inquire whether we would be 
willing to endure such toil and "despise such 
shame/' that we might transmit to the children 
of a future generation the rich inheritance 
which we enjoy. 

The Church needs such men in these times 
— genuine reformers, men who will dare to pro- 
claim the whole counsel of God, though for 
doing so they may be maligned, traduced, mis- 
represented, and their names even cast out as 
8 



114 Gbe l^ouns peopled Wesley. 

evil; men who will lovingly but unflinchingly 
face the incoming tide of worldliness with the 
old Wesleyan weapons of faith and prayer un- 
til holiness triumphs. 

Writing to Alexander Mather, Wesley says : 
"Give me but one hundred men who fear noth- 
ing but sin and desire nothing but God, and 
I care not a straw whether they be clergymen 
or laymen, such alone will overthrow the king- 
dom of Satan and build up the kingdom of 
God upon earth." 



CHAPTER XI. 

WESLEY AND HIS THEOLOGY. 

Mr. Wesley was well versed in every phase 
of the theology of his times. Indeed, he was 
one of the best-read men of his age. That sys- 
tem of scriptural truth which he formulated 
has stood the test of the most searching crit- 
icism, being bitterly assailed on all sides. His 
theology has the advantage of having been 
forged in the hottest fires of controversy which 
have been witnessed during the last two cen- 
turies. And it is not presumption in us to 
say that it has revolutionized, in some marked 
features, the religious opinions of orthodox 
Christendom. This is manifest to all who 
have carefully observed the drift of religious 
sentiment. 

The Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of 
England seem framed to meet different forms 
of religious faith, as the seventeenth and 
thirty-first articles clearly show. 

Among the regular clergy were many high- 
toned Calvinists, and nearly all Dissenters 
were of the same faith. 

In 1770 Wesley's Conference met, and after 
a long and earnest discussion of the subject 



116 Zhe ^oung people's "Wesley. 

came to the decision that they had "leaned too 
much toward Calvinism." When the Minutes 
of this Conference were made public they cre- 
ated great excitement, for it was a blow at 
the prevailing belief of the times. Three 
classes rushed to the defense of what they re- 
garded as truth: 1. The Calvinistic Metho- 
dists, who had been associated with Wesley, 
and regarded him as their leader. 2. The 
Church party, strong and influential. 3. The 
Dissenters; these were nearly all Calvinists. 
Between these parties there had been formerly 
no special sympathy, but they united to antag- 
onize Wesley. 

Against all these Wesley stood, as he says, 
"Athanasius contra mundum" ("Athanasius 
against the world")- With him was associated 
Eev. John Fletcher, the saintly vicar of Mad- 
eley. As a controversialist he was peerless, 
and as a saintly character modern times have 
not produced his superior. 

The conflict was long and bitter. It was 
conducted on the one side by Kev. and Hon. 
Walter Shirley, Hon. Kichard Hill, his broth- 
er, the famous Rowland Hill, Kev. Mr. Bev- 
eridge, and Kev. Augustus Toplady; and on 
the other side by Mr. Wesley, but mainly by 
Mr. Fletcher. It was admitted by all fair- 
minded men that the Damascus blade of the 
hero of Madeley won in the conflict and was 
master of the situation. Fletcher's Checks to 



Wesley anfc bte Zbeoloay. H7 

Antinomianism was the result. These have 
stood for more than a hundred years a bul- 
wark against the baneful errors which they 
seek to overthrow. These plumed warriors 
have long since adjusted their dogmatic dif- 
ferences, for harmony is the law of that world 
in which they live. 

We shall proceed to give a brief statement 
of the fundamental doctrines held and ad- 
vocated by Mr. Wesley, omitting any merely 
speculative opinions regarded by him as 
nonessential : 

I. The Deity of Christ. 

While Mr. Wesley had charity for doubters, 
he held with great firmness the supreme divin- 
ity and Godhead of Christ. "The Word ex- 
isted" he says, "without any beginning. He 
was when all things began to be, whatever had 
a beginning. He was the Word which the 
Father begat or spoke from eternity." "The 
Word was with God, therefore distinct from 
God the Father. The word rendered with de- 
notes a perpetual tendency, as it were, of the 
Son to the Father in unity of essence. He was 
with God alone, because nothing beside God 
had then any being. And the Word was God 
— supreme, eternal, independent. There was 
no creature in respect of which he could be 
styled God in a relative sense. Therefore he 
is styled so in the absolute sense."* 
* Works, vol. ii, p. 24, 



118 Gbe ^oung peopled meelev. 

II. The Fall and Corruption of Man. 

In regard to the fall and consequent cor- 
ruption of human nature, Mr. Wesley ac- 
cepted the faith of the Church of England, 
which is as follows: "Original, or birth, sin 
standeth not in the following of Adam (as the 
Pelagians do vainly talk), but it is the corrup- 
tion of the nature of every man, that natu- 
rally is engendered of the offspring of Adam, 
whereby man is very far gone from original 
righteousness, and of his own nature is in- 
clined to evil, and that continually." He 
taught that sin was both original and actual, 
sin of the heart and sin of the life, or outward 
sin and inward sin. 

Of actual, or outward, sin he says: "Noth- 
ing is sin, strictly speaking, but a voluntary 
transgression of a known law of God. There- 
fore, every voluntary breach of the law of love 
is sin, and nothing else, if we speak properly." 
Speaking of a believer being freed from the 
actual commission of sin, he says: "I under- 
stand this of 'inward sin/ any sinful temper, 
passion, or affection, such as pride, self-will, 
love of the world." Mr. Wesley's views on this 
subject cannot be harmonized, except we admit 
his definition of sin — sin as an outward act, 
expressed by the voluntary commission of sin; 
and sin as a state or condition of the heart, 
expressed by the text, "All unrighteousness is 



TKHesles anD bis abeoloss. 119 

Mr. Wesley's view of sin is no Unitarian 
view, but sin in all its destructive effects upon 
the human heart, holding it in its "unwilling 
grasp;" the soul "drinking in iniquity like 
water;" the "soul dead in trespasses and sin," 
and being "dragged at sin's chariot wheels," 
until in utter despair he cries, "O, wretched 
man that I am, who shall deliver me?" At 
this point there comes deliverance to the soul. 

III. General or Universal ^Redemption. 

By this Mr. Wesley meant that the atone- 
ment was for each member of the human fam- 
ily, except when rejected by voluntary choice. 
As a consequence of this doctrine of general 
redemption he lays down two axioms, of which 
he never loses sight in his preaching. Says 
Mr. Fletcher: 1. "All our salvation is of God 
in Christ, and therefore of grace; all oppor- 
tunities, inclinations, and power to believe, 
being bestowed upon us of mere grace — grace 
most absolutely free." 2. "He asserted with 
equal confidence that, according to the Gospel 
dispensation, all our damnation is of ourself, 
by our obstinate unbelief and avoidable un- 
faithfulness, as we may neglect so great sal- 
vation." These points he made clear from the 
Word of God. 

It must be admitted that Calvinism has 
greatly changed in the last hundred years, 
both in Europe and America. We doubt if 



120 zhc loung peopled WLeelev. 

any can be found who would attempt, in these 
times, to defend the doctrine which Messrs. 
Shirley, Hill, and Toplady attempted to de- 
fend in Wesley's time. Mr. Toplady said: 
"Whatever comes to pass, comes to pass by 
virtue of the absolute, omnipotent will of God, 
which is the primary and supreme cause of all 
things." "If so, it may be objected," he says, 
"that whatever is, is right. Consequences can- 
not be helped." "Whatever a man does," he 
says, "he does necessarily, though not with 
any sensible compulsion ; and that we can only 
do what God, from eternity, willed and fore- 
knew we should." Surely, this does not differ 
from "whatsoever is ? is right." 

The doctrine of foreknowledge, with Mr. 
Toplady, included the doctrine of election and 
decrees. He said: "As God does not will that 
each individual of mankind should be saved, 
so neither did he will that Christ should prop- 
erly and immediately die for each individual 
of mankind; whence it follows that, though 
the blood of Christ, from its intrinsic dignity, 
was sufficient for the redemption of all men, 
yet, in consequence of his Father's appoint- 
ment, he shed it intentionally, and therefore 
effectually and immediately, for the elect 
only." 

Mr. Wesley said, in reply to these strange 
utterances, that their doctrine represented 
Christ "as a hypocrite, a deceiver of the people, 



Mesleg anD bis GbeolO0£. 121 

a man void of common sincerity; for it can- 
not be denied that he everywhere speaks as 
if he was willing that all men should be saved 
— provided the possibility. Therefore, to say 
that he was not willing that all men should 
be saved — that he had provided no such pos- 
sibility — is to represent him as a hypocrite 
and deceiver." "You cannot deny," says Wes- 
ley, "that he says, 'Come unto me, all ye that 
labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you 
rest.' If you say unto me, He calls those that 
cannot come, those whom he knows to be un- 
able to come, those whom he can make able to 
come, but will not, how is it possible to de- 
scribe greater insincerity? You represent 
him as mocking his helpless creatures by offer- 
ing what he never intended to give. You 
describe him as saying one thing and mean- 
ing another — as pretending a love which 
he had not. Him, in whose mouth was no 
guile, you make full of deceit, void of common 
sincerity." 

In this manner the conflict went on until 
the theology of the ages, on this subject, has 
been revolutionized. 

The Wesleyan doctrine of foreknowledge 
and free agency may be stated in a few words. 
It is, in substance, as follows: 

1. The freedom of a moral agent is freedom 
to follow his own choice, where he is held re- 
sponsible for his conduct, 



122 Gbe loung peopled meeley. 

2. The foreknowledge of God is a divine 
perception of what that agent will choose to 
do in a given case of responsibility. In this 
there is no conflict between freedom and fore- 
knowledge. 

We admit that God saw sin as a certainty, but 
that perception did not make sin a certainty. 
The freedom of the agent does not destroy the 
knowledge of God, nor does the knowledge of 
God destroy the freedom of the agent. God's 
knowledge of the certainty does not cause the 
certainty. His knowledge of what an agent 
will choose to do depends on the certainty 
that he will do it, and until the certainty ex- 
ists God cannot know it, as neither God nor 
man can know anything where there is noth- 
ing to know. The knowledge may follow after, 
go before, or accompany an event, but gives no 
existence or character to the event, any more 
than a light shining around a rock gives char- 
acter or existence to the rock. 

IV. The New Birth. 

The new birth, according to Wesley, includes 
pardon, justification, regeneration, and adop- 
tion. These are coetaneous — received at one 
and the same time. But they are always pre- 
ceded by conviction of sin, repentance, and 
submission to God by faith. 

Mr. Wesley says that whosoever is justified 
is born again, and whosoever is born again is 



TKaesleg anfc bis ZbeolOQV. 123 

justified, that "both these gifts of God are 
given to every believer at one and the same 
moment. In one point of time his sins are 
blotted out, and he is born again of God." 

Mr. Wesley taught that the new birth put an 
end to the voluntary commission of sin. This 
change is really a "new creation;" it removes' 
the "love of sin," so that "he that is born of 
God does not commit sin." Sin, though it may 
and does exist, does not reign in him who is 
born of God. It has no longer dominion, 
though it may have a being, in his heart, re- 
quiring a still further work of grace. This 
wonderful change is effected by faith in the 
atoning sacrifice. It must be by faith alone. 
And such a doctrine is very full of comfort. 

V. The Witness of the Spirit. 
This doctrine, as well as justification by 
faith, was strongly contested in Wesley's time, 
and the contest has not fully subsided. Many 
argue that there is no direct witness of the 
Spirit except what comes through the Word, 
and hence is an inference which we draw by a 
process of reasoning. The Word of God, it is 
claimed, gives us certain marks of the new 
birth. We recognize such internal evidence, 
hence we infer that we are justified, or born 
again. This is Wesley's indirect witness, or 
the witness of our own spirit. But he claimed 
that God, by his own Spirit, gives us a direct 



124 zbc l^oung ipeople'6 WLeelev. 

witness; that the "Spirit of God witnesses 
with our spirit that we are the children of 
God." And here is his incomparable defini- 
tion of this soul-cheering truth: "By the wit- 
ness of the Spirit I mean an inward impres- 
sion of the soul, whereby the Spirit of God 
immediately and directly witnesses to my 
spirit that I am a child of God; that Jesus 
Christ hath loved me and given himself for 
me ; that all my sins have been blotted out, and 
I, even I, am reconciled to God." 

Twenty years later, speaking of this defini- 
tion, he said: "I see no cause to retract any 
of these suggestions. Neither do I conceive 
how any of those expressions may be altered 
so as to make them more intelligible." 

This constitutes the direct witness of the 
Spirit. 

The indirect witness, or the witness of our 
own spirit, including the fruit of the Spirit, 
is subsequent to this direct witness. The one 
is the tree, and the other its fruit. 

VI. Final Perseverance of the Saints. 
While Calvinism has modified its faith in 
regard to many things, it still adheres to its 
original belief in this dogma. It is stated 
in these words in their Confession of Faith: 
"They whom God has accepted in his beloved, 
effectually called, sanctified by his Spirit, can 
neither totally nor finally fall away from the 



TlOesleB an& bis GbeoloaB, 125 

state of grace, but shall certainly persevere 
to the end, and be eternally saved." It is 
further declared that "this perseverance of 
the saints depends not upon their own will, but 
upon the immutability of the decree of elec- 
tion," etc. They say, also, that "the persever- 
ance of the saints is one of the Articles by 
which the creed of the followers of Calvin is 
distinguished from that of Arminius." 

Mr. Wesley as well as Mr. Fletcher opposed 
this doctrine. They declared with all the 
force of scriptural authority that "if the right- 
eous turn away from his righteousness and 
commit iniquity, his righteousness shall no 
longer be remembered, but for his iniquity 
that he hath committed he shall die for it." 
They insisted that if "every branch in Christ 
that did not bear fruit was to be cut off and 
cast into the fire and burned," the apostasy of a 
believer may be final. They insisted that "if we 
sin willfully after we have received the knowl- 
edge of the truth, there remaineth no more sac- 
rifice for sin, but a fearful looking for of judg- 
ment and fiery indignation," etc.; that we 
might so far backslide as that another "might 
take our crown." They went everywhere de- 
claring that the only safeguard against final 
apostasy was to be "faithful unto death." 



126 Zbe i^oung people's WLeelcy. 
VII. Entire Sanctification or Christian 

PERFECTION. 

Mr. Wesley declared that this was "the 
grand depositum which God had lodged with 
the people called Methodists, and for the sake 
of propagating this chiefly he appears to have 
raised them up." His opponents charged him 
with preaching perfection. They said, deri- 
sively, "This is Mr. Wesley's doctrine! He 
preaches perfection!" "He does," responds 
Wesley, "yet this is not his doctrine any more 
than it is yours, or anyone's else that is a min- 
ister of Christ. For it is his doctrine, pecul- 
iarly, emphatically his; it is the doctrine of 
Jesus Christ. These are his words, not mine: 
'Ye shall therefore be perfect, as your Father 
who is in heaven is perfect/ And who says 
ye shall not; or, at least, not till your soul is 
separated from your body?" 

It is true Wesley used the term "perfection," 
but it was not the only word he used to set 
forth this truth, but such terms as "perfect 
love," "full salvation," "full sanctification," 
"the whole image of God," "second change," 
"clean heart," "pure heart," "loving God with 
all the heart," etc. He says: "I have no par- 
ticular fondness for the term perfection. It 
seldom occurs in my preaching or writing. It 
is my opponents who thrust it upon me contin- 
ually, and ask what I mean by it. I do not 



meelev an& bis Zbcolog^ 127 

build any doctrine thereupon, nor undertake 
critically to explain it." "What is the meaning 
of perfection? is another question. That it is 
a scriptural term is undeniable ; therefore none 
ought to object to the term, whatever they may 
as to this or that explication of it." "But I 
still think that perfection is only another term 
for holiness, or the image of God in man. 'God 
made man perfect/ I think, is just the same as 
'He made him holy,' or 'in his own image.' " 

It does not come within our plan or purpose 
to give a detailed exposition of Christian per- 
fection, but simply to call the reader's atten- 
tion to the truth as the central doctrine in Mr. 
Wesley's system of religious faith. With him 
it was deliverance from inbred, as well as 
actual, sin. It was not sin repressed, but sin 
exterminated, deliverance from sin. His 
standing definition was the following: "Sanc- 
tification, in a proper sense, is an instantane- 
ous deliverance from all sin, and includes an 
instantaneous power, then given, always to 
cleave to God. Yet this sanctification does not 
include a power never to think a useless thought, 
nor ever speak a useless word. I myself be- 
lieve that such a perfection is inconsistent with 
living in a corruptible body; for this makes it 
impossible always to think aright. While we 
breathe we shall more or less mistake. If, 
therefore, Christian perfection includes this, 
we must not expect it until after death." He 



128 Gbe i£oun0 people's Wicelc^ 

says again that "the perfection he believes in 
is 'love dwelling alone in the heart.'" It is 
"deliverance from evil desires and evil tem- 
pers" as well as from "evil words and works." 
"I want you to be all love. This is the perfec- 
tion I believe and teach. And this perfection 
is consistent with a thousand nervous disor- 
ders, which that high-strained perfection is 
not. Indeed, my judgment is (in this case par- 
ticularly) to overdo is to undo; and that to 
set perfection too high (so high as no man 
that we ever heard or read of attained) is the 
most effectual (because unsuspected) way of 
driving it out of the world."* "Nor did I 
ever say or mean any more by perfection than 
the loving God with all our heart, and serving 
him with all our strength; for it might be 
attended with worse consequences than you 
seem to be aware of. If there be a mistake, it 
is far more dangerous on the one side than on 
the other. If I set the mark too high, I drive 
men into needless fears; if you set it too low, 
you drive them into hell fire."t 

It is not for us to defend these views, but 
simply to record them, as the theological faith 
of the founder of Methodism, and that which 
the Methodist Church in all the world has pro- 
fessed to believe and teach. 

* Works, vol. vi, p. 718. t Ibid., p. 525. 



Wesley anD bte Gbeoloas. 129 

VIII. The Kesurrection of the Dead. 

Mr. Wesley taught the doctrine of the general 
resurrection of the human body. "The plain 
notion of a resurrection," he says, "requires 
that the selfsame body that died should rise 
again. Nothing can be said to be raised again 
but that body that died. If God gives to our 
souls a new body, this cannot be called a resur- 
rection of the body, because the word plainly 
implies the fresh production of what was be- 
fore."* 

While he holds that the same body is to 
be raised, it is not a natural, but a spiritual, 
body. "It is sown in this world a merely 
animal body — maintained by food, sleep, and 
air, like the body of brutes. But it is raised 
of a more refined contexture, needing none 
of these animal refreshments, and endued with 
qualities of a spiritual nature like the angels 
of God." "We must be entirely changed, for 
such flesh and blood as we are clothed with 
now cannot enter into that kingdom which is 
wholly spiritual ."f He speaks of the place 
from which the dead rise as evidence of its 
being the same body that died (John v, 28). 
"The hour is coming when all that are in their 
graves shall hear his voice and shall come 
forth." "Now, if the same body do not rise 
again, what need is there of opening the graves 
* Sermons, vol. ii, p. 50. t Wesley's Notes on 1 Cor. 15. 

9 



130 Gbe l^oung people's WLeslev. 

at the end of the world ?" The graves can give 
up no bodies but those which were laid in 
them. If we were not to rise with the very 
same bodies that died, then they might rest 
forever. 

Mr. Wesley taught, in harmony with the 
Scriptures, the doctrine of 

IX. General Judgment. 
This, Mr. Wesley claimed, would take place 
at the second coming of Christ, at the end of 
the world, "when the Son of man shall come 
in his glory." "The dead of all nations will 
be gathered before him." This he calls "the 
day of the Lord, the space from the creation of 
men upon the earth to the end of all things;" 
"the days of the sons of men, the time that is 
now passing over us. When this is ended the 
day of the Lord begins." "The time when we 
are to give this account" is at the second ad- 
vent, "when the great white throne comes 
down from heaven, and he who sitteth thereon, 
from whose face the heavens and earth shall 
flee away." It is "then the dead, small and 
great, stand before God, and the books will be 
opened." "Before all these the whole human 
race shall appear," etc.* 

* Works, vol. i, p. 454. 



Weelev anfc bis GbeolOGE. 131 

X. Eternal Reward and Punishment. 

Mr. Wesley taught that men would be both 
punished and rewarded at the judgment, and 
that both reward and punishment would be 
eternal. "Either the punishment is strictly 
eternal, or the reward is not, the very same 
expression being applied to the former as to 
the latter. It is not only particularly observ- 
able here (1) that the punishment lasts as 
long as the reward, but (2) that this punish- 
ment is so far from ceasing at the end of the 
world that it does not begin till then."* "The 
rewards will never come to an end unless God 
comes to an end and his truth fail. The wick- 
ed, meantime, shall be turned into hell, and 
all the nations that forget God." 

These are the doctrines of universal Metho- 
dism, as expressed in its creed. Metho- 
dism accepts the doctrines inculcated by John 
Wesley. 

Our space does not allow us to do more 
than to state these doctrines in the briefest 
form. Wherever they are faithfully preached 
they become effectual to the saving of men. It 
is hoped that Methodism will abide by its doc- 
trinal creed, for by it all its victories have 
been achieved. 

* Notes on Matt. 25. 41. 



CHAPTER XII. 

WESLEY AS A MAN. 

We are always more or less curious about 
the personal appearance of a distinguished 
character — the eye, the voice, the gesture, etc. 

We are told that Mr. Wesley's figure was, in 
all respects, remarkable. He was low of stat- 
ure, with habit of body almost the reverse 
of corpulent, indicative of strict temperance 
and continual exercise. His step was firm, 
and his appearance vigorous and masculine; 
his face, even in old age, is described as re- 
markably fine— clear, smooth, with an aquiline 
nose, the brightest and most piercing eye that 
could be conceived, and a freshness of com- 
plexion rarely found in a man of his years, 
giving to him a venerable and interesting ap- 
pearance. In him cheerfulness was mingled 
with gravity, sprightliness with serene tran- 
quillity. His countenance at times, especial- 
ly while preaching, produced a lasting im- 
pression upon the hearers. They were not 
able to dispossess themselves of his striking 
expression. 

While preaching at Langhamrow a young 
man who was full of hilarity and mirth had, 



Wesley as a rtftan. 133 

on his way to church, kept saying to his com- 
panions, with an air of carelessness, "This 
fine Mr. Wesley I shall hear, and get convert- 
ed." He did hear him, but he had never gazed 
upon such a countenance before. It put him 
in a more serious frame of mind, and for a 
long time, day and night, whether at home or 
abroad, that wonderful countenance was be- 
fore him so full of solemnity and benignity. 
It was the means of his conversion, and he 
became a worthy church member and useful 
class leader. 

In dress Mr. Wesley was the pattern of neat- 
ness and simplicity, wearing a narrow plaited 
stock, and coat with small upright collar, with 
no silk or velvet on any part of his apparel. 
This, added to a head as white as snow, gave 
to the beholder an idea of something primitive 
and apostolic. 

The following description of him is given by 
one who, though not a Methodist, could prop- 
erly appreciate true greatness: "Very lately I 
had an opportunity for some days together to 
observe Mr. Wesley with attention. I endeav- 
ored to consider him not so much with the eye 
of a friend as with the impartiality of a phi- 
losopher. I must declare every hour I spent 
in his company afforded me fresh reasons for 
esteem and veneration. So fine an old man I 
never saw. The happiness of his mind beamed 
forth in his countenance. Every look showed 



134 Gbe tyoung peopled Wesley. 

how fully he enjoyed the remembrance of a 
life well spent. Wherever he was he diffused 
a portion of his own felicity. Easy and affable 
in his demeanor, he accommodated himself to 
every sort of company, and showed how happily 
the most finished courtesy may be blended with 
the most perfect piety." 

In social life Mr. Wesley was a finished 
Christian gentleman, and this was seen in the 
perfect ease with which he accommodated him- 
self to both high and low, rich and poor. He 
was placid, benevolent, full of rich anecdotes, 
wit, and wisdom. In all these his conversation 
was not often equaled. He was never trifling, 
but always cheerful. Such interviews were 
always concluded by a verse or two of some 
hymn, adapted to what had been said, and 
prayer. 

There was no evidence of fret He used to 
say, "I dare no more fret than curse or swear." 
"His sprightliness among his friends never 
left him, and was as conspicuous at eighty-seven 
as at seventeen." He was at home everywhere, 
in the mansion or in the cottage, and was 
equally courteous to all. The young drew to 
him and he to them. "I reverence the young," 
he said, "because they may be useful after I 
am dead." Bradburn, one of his most intimate 
friends, said : "His modesty prevented him say- 
ing much concerning his own religious feel- 
ings. In public he hardly ever spoke of the 



WLeeley as a Man. 135 

state of his own soul ; but in 1781 he told me 
that his experience might, almost at any time, 
be expressed in the following lines: 

" 'O Thou who earnest from above, 
The pure celestial fire to impart, 

Kindle a flame of sacred love 

On the mean altar of my heart. 

" 'There let it for thy glory burn, 

With inextinguishable blaze ; 
And trembling to its source return, 

With humble prayer and fervent praise.' " 

This may not be sufficiently definite for 
some, but it is quite as much so as genuine 
Christian modesty would approve. But it is 
evident that he always possessed the "pure, 
celestial fire," and that its "inextinguishable 
blaze" bore him on to deeds of heroic daring 
unparalleled in modern times. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

WESLEY AS A PREACHER. 

Mr. Wesley, it has been said, "was no 
stormy and dramatic Luther. He was no 
Cromwell, putting his enemies to the sword in 
the name of the Lord. He was no Knox, tear- 
ing down churches to get rid of their members. 
He was no Calvin; he did not burn anybody 
for disagreeing with him." 

Mr. Wesley was styled "the mover of men's 
consciences." His preaching was simple — a 
child could easily understand him. There 
were no far-fetched terms, no soaring among 
the clouds. All was simple, artless, and clear. 
He declares that he could no more preach a 
fine sermon that he could wear a fine coat. 

George Whitefield was regarded as the prince 
of modern eloquence. Dr. Franklin (no mean 
judge) accorded him this rank. Charles Wes- 
ley was but little inferior to Whitefield as a 
pulpit orator; while Fletcher was not inferior 
to either. Mr. Wesley regarded him as supe- 
rior to Whitefield. "He had," says Wesley, "a 
more striking person, equally good breeding, 
and winning address ; together with a rich flow 
of fancy, a strong understanding, and a far 
greater treasure of learning both in language, 
philosophy, philology, and divinity, and above 
all (which I can speak with greater assurance, 



naesles ae a f>reacber. 137 

because I had a thorough knowledge both of 
one and the other), a more deep and constant 
communion with the Father, and with his 
Son, Jesus Christ." 

These were mighty men. The multitudes 
that listened to them were swayed by their 
eloquence and power as is the forest by a 
rushing, mighty wind. Their earnest appeals 
drew floods of tears from eyes unaccustomed to 
weep. 

We are not informed that Mr. Wesley often 
wept while preaching, and yet no such effects 
were produced by Whitefield's preaching as 
were witnessed under Wesley's. Mr. Southey 
admits that the sermons of Wesley were at- 
tended with greater and more lasting effect 
than were the sermons of Whitefield. Men fell 
under his words like soldiers slain in battle. 
While he was calm, collected, deliberate, and 
logical, he was more powerful in moving the 
sensibilities as well as the understanding of 
his hearers than any other man in England. 
Marvelous were the physical effects produced 
by his preaching. 

We are told that "his attitude in the pulpit 
was graceful and easy; his action calm and 
natural, yet pleasing and expressive," and his 
command over an audience was very remark- 
able. He always faced the mob, and was gen- 
erally victorious at such times. In the midst 
of a mob he says: "I called for a chair; the 



138 Gbe loung ipeople'6 meelev. 

winds were hushed, and all was calm and still ; 
my heart was filled with love, my eyes with 
tears, and my mouth with arguments. They 
were amazed, they were ashamed, they 
were melted down, they devoured every 
word." There must have been, in such 
preaching, that which seldom falls to our 
lot to hear. Beattie once heard him preach 
at Aberdeen one of his ordinary sermons. He 
remarked that "it was not a masterly sermon, 
yet none but a master could have preached it." 
The account of Wesley preaching at Ep- 
worth on his father's tombstone is inspiring. 
He was refused the church where his honored 
father had preached thirty-nine years, and 
for three successive nights he stood upon his 
father's tombstone and preached to a large 
company of people. "A living son," says Tyer- 
man, "preaching on his dead father's grave, 
because the parish priest refused to allow him 
to officiate in the dead father's church." "I 
am well persuaded," said Wesley, "that I did 
more good to my Lincolnshire parishioners 
by preaching three days on my father's tomb 
than I did by preaching three years in his 
pulpit." During the preaching of these ser- 
mons, it is said, the people wept aloud on every 
side, and Wesley's voice at times was drowned 
by the cries of penitents, and many in 
that old churchyard found peace with God. 
On another evening many dropped as dead 



WLeslev as a fcreacber. 139 

men under the word. A clergyman who heard 
Wesley preach on that occasion, in writing to 
him, said: "Your presence created an awe, as 
if you were an inhabitant of another world." 

Who remembers the name of Hector Komley, 
that ecclesiastical pretender who arrogated to 
himself such authority? His name has long 
since passed into comparative oblivion, while 
that of Wesley, whom he despised, shines as a 
star of the first magnitude, and shall shine on 
until the heavens shall pass away. A few 
years later Eomley lost his voice, became a 
drunkard, then a lunatic, and thus died. 

A late writer, not a Methodist, gives a glow- 
ing description of Wesley and his conflicts : 

He was the peer, In intellectual endowments, of 
any literary character of that most literary period. 
No gownsman of the university, no lawned and mi- 
tered prelate of his time, was intellectually the 
superior of this itinerant Methodist — a bishop more 
truly than the Archprelate of Canterbury himself 
in everything but the empty name. The hosts of 
literary pamphleteers and controversialists that 
rained their attacks upon his system, in showers, 
were made to feel the keenness of his logic and the 
staggering weight of his responsive blows. It is a 
fine sight to look upon, from this distance, that of 
this single modest man, an unpretentious knight of 
true religion and consecrated learning, beset for 
forty years by scores, yes, hundreds, of assailants, 
armed in all the ostentation of churchly dignity, 
shooting at him their arrows of tracts and sermons ; 
newspaper writers pouring upon him their ceaseless 
squibs ; malicious critics assailing his motives and 



140 Gbe njoung {peopled WLcelcv. 

his methods with innuendoes and false suggestions ; 
ponderous professors tilting at him with their heavier 
lances of books and stately treatises ; and he, alone, 
giving more than thrust for thrust, and his brother 
Charles furnishing the inspiring accompaniment of 
martial music until one man had chased a thousand, 
and two have put ten thousand to flight.* 

Speaking of the physical effects produced 
by Mr. Wesley's preaching, the same writer 

says : 

Wesley is in Bristol for nine months — such a nine 
months Bristol never saw before. No ! nor England, 
nor the world since the day of Pentecost. Wesley's 
notions of propriety were destined to be still further 
shocked. Among the multitudes that thronged around 
him strange physical demonstrations began to ap- 
pear. They shocked even Whitefleld when he heard 
of them, and he remonstrated with Wesley for seem- 
ing to permit or encourage them. Men were smitten 
by his words as a field of standing corn by a tempest. 
Intense physical agony prostrated them upon the 
ground. They stood trembling, with fixed eyeballs 
staring as though they were looking into eternal 
horror. Some, who seemed utterly incapable of any- 
thing like enthusiasm, were struck as dead. Others 
beat their breasts and begged for forgiveness for their 
sins. Others were actually torn and maimed in un- 
conscious convulsions. The story of the demoniac In 
the gospels was, to all appearances, realized over 
and over. 

And again, under his assurance of full forgiveness 
and free salvation, the storm would give way to a 
calm, and these same persons would be at peace, 
clothed and in their right minds. Wesley was help- 
less ; never was more honest and straightforward in 
generous work. He was himself amazed, almost 
terrified ; but, "I have come to the conclusion," he 
says, "that we must all suffer God to carry on his 
own work in the way that pleaseth him. I am not 
anxious to account for this." Wesley's attitude was 

* Some Heretics of Yesterday, p. 300. 



Wesley as a fl>reacber, 141 

the right one. Wesley was preaching to men and 
women who were densely ignorant, in many cases, of 
the nature of sin, and of the story of God's re- 
demptive mercy. His words to them were as truly 
the opening of an apocalypse as when John saw the 
vision of his Lord, and "fell at his feet as dead." 

No wonder such signal effects moved Eng- 
land, Ireland, and Scotland, and, in many 
instances, America. 

The venerable Rev. Thomas Jackson says: 
"No man was accustomed to address larger 
multitudes or with greater success, and it may 
be fairly questioned whether any minister in 
modern ages has been instrumental in effect- 
ing a greater number of conversions. He pos- 
sessed all the essential elements of a great 
preacher, and in nothing was he inferior to 
his eminent friend and contemporary, George 
Whitefield, except in voice and manner. In 
respect of matter, language, and arrangement, 
his sermons were vastly superior to those of 
Mr. Whitefield. Those who Judge Wesley's 
ministry from the sermons which he preached 
and published in the decline of life greatly 
mistake his real character. Till he was en- 
feebled by age his discourses were not at all 
remarkable for their brevity. They were often 
extended to a considerable length. Wesley 
the preacher was tethered by no lines of writ- 
ten preparation and verbal recollection; he 
spoke with extraordinary power of utterance 
out of the fullness of his heart." 



142 Gbe loung people's WLeelev. 

Dr. Rigg says: "In regard to Wesley in his 
early Oxford days, calm, serene, methodical 
as Wesley was, there was a deep, steadfast 
fire of earnest purpose about him ; and notwith- 
standing the smallness of his stature there was 
an elevation of character and of bearing vis- 
ible to all with whom he had intercourse, 
which gave him a wonderful power of com- 
mand, however quiet were his words, and how- 
ever placid his deportment. But the extraor- 
dinary power of his preaching, while it owe'd 
something, no doubt, to this tone and presence 
of calm, unconscious authority, was due main- 
ly, essentially, to the searching and impor- 
tunate closeness and fidelity with which he 
dealt with the consciences of his hearers, and 
the passionate vehemence with which he urged 
and entreated them to turn to Christ and be 
saved. His words went with a sudden and 
startling shock straight home into the core of 
the guilty sinner's consciousness and heart." 

Dr. Abel Stevens says: "As a preacher he 
remains a problem to us. It is at least difficult 
to explain, at this late day, the secret of his 
great power in the pulpit. Aside from the 
divine influence which is pledged to all faith- 
ful ministers, there must have been some pe- 
culiar power in his address which the records 
of the times have failed to describe; his ac- 
tion was calm and natural, yet pleasing and 
expressive ; his voice not loud, but clear, agree- 



WLeslev as a fl>reacbec 143 

able, and masculine; his style neat and per- 
spicuous." 

Cowper says he 
"Could fetch the records from earlier age, 
Or from philosophy's enlightened page 
His rich materials, and regale your ear 
With strains it was a privilege to hear. 
Yet, above all, his luxury supreme, 
And his chief glory, was the Gospel theme : 
There he was copious as old Greece or Rome, 
His happy eloquence seemed there at home ; 
Ambitious not to shine or to excel, 
But to treat justly what he loved so well." 

Dr. Rigg says: "In his more intense utter- 
ances logic and passion were fused into a white 
heat of mingled argument, denunciation, and 
appeal, often of the most personal searching- 
ness, often overwhelming in its vehement home 
thrusts." 

Dr. Whitehead says: "Wesley's style was 
marked with brevity and perspicuity. He nev- 
er lost sight of the rule laid down by Horace : 
'Concise your diction, let your sense be clear, 
Not with a weight of words fatigue the ear.' 

His words were pure, proper to the subject, and 
precise in their meaning." 

Mr. Wesley studied human character, and 
sought to adapt his preaching to the masses. 
One day he was passing Billingsgate market, 
with Bradford, while two of the women were 
quarreling furiously. His companion urged 
him to pass on, but Wesley replied, "Stay, 
Sammy, stay and learn how to preach." 



CHAPTER XIV. 

wesley as a reformer. 

Slavery. 

Those moral reforms which have shaken the 
nations and in some cases revolutionized gov- 
ernments were scarcely known in the days of 
Wesley. He saw the coming storm and blew 
a trumpet-blast which gave no uncertain 
sound. In some of these reforms he was a 
hundred years in advance of his time. 

Slavery, in Wesley's time, was strongly sup- 
ported by the English government. She had 
enriched herself from the African slave trade. 
Her great maritime cities were built on the 
bones, sinews, and flesh, cemented by the blood, 
of oppressed bondmen. To oppose slavery was 
to oppose the government. Wesley met this 
gigantic evil with Christian courage. What 
was true of England was also true of her col- 
onies. He united with Sharp, Clarkson, Wil- 
berforce, and others to oppose the evil. He 
represented the slave trade as "that execrable 
sum of all villainies, commonly called the 
slave trade." American slavery he declared 
was "the vilest that ever saw the sun." No ad- 
dresses delivered on the subject, during the 




WESLEY S TEA-POT. 




WESLEY'S BIBLE AND CASE. 



IMesleg as a Informer. 145 

days of the greatest antislavery excitement, 
exceeded in severity those which fell from the 
lips and were produced by the pen of John 
Wesley. His Thoughts on Slavery was the 
keynote of the movement. 

Wesley's last letter, written only four days 
before his death, was addressed to Wilber- 
force, urging him to persevere in the work. 
It is as follows: 

London, February 26, 1791. 

Dear Sir : Unless the divine Power has raised 
you up to be an Athanasius contra mundum (Ath- 
anasius against the world), I see not how you can 
go through your glorious enterprise in opposing that 
execrable villainy which is the scandal of religion, 
of England, and of human nature. Unless God has 
raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn 
out by the opposition of men and devils. But "if 
God be for you, who can be against you?" Are all 
of them together stronger than God? O, "be not 
weary in welldoing." Go on, In the name of God, 
and in the power of his might, till even American 
slavery (the vilest that ever saw the sun) shall 
vanish away before it. 

Reading this morning a tract written by a poor 
African, I was particularly struck by this circum- 
stance — that a man who has a black skin, being 
wronged or outraged by a white man, can have no 
redress ; it being a law, In all our colonies, that the 
oath of a black against a white goes for nothing. 
What villainy is this! 

That He who has guided you from your youth up 
may continue to strengthen you in this and all 
things is the prayer, dear sir, of 

Your affectionate servant, 

John Wesley. 
10 



146 Gbe l^oung people's meelev. 

He represents the slave trade as exceeding 
in barbarity whatever Christian slaves suf- 
fered in Mohammedan countries. 

Whitefield's letter to Wesley, in 1751, is 
a clear defense of slavery in the colonies. He 
quotes Abraham, who had slaves "bought with 
his money" and "born in his house." The same 
argument was employed in later years. White- 
field added to his approval of the slave trade 
the fact that he became himself a slaveholder. 
At the time of his death, in 1770, he was the 
owner of seventy-five slaves, who were con- 
nected with his Orphan House plantation, near 
Savannah, Ga. It is not surprising that God 
should have swept the whole concern, by fire 
and flood, from the face of the earth. 

"Let it be noted," says Mr. Tyerman, "that 
besides all his other honors John Wesley, the 
poor, persecuted Methodist, was one of the 
first advocates on behalf of the enthralled 
African that England had, and that, sixty 
years before slavery was abolished in the do- 
minions of Great Britain, he denounced the 
thing in the strongest terms it was possible 
to employ." Mr. Wesley's Thoughts on Slav- 
ery, an octavo of fifty-three pages, issued in 
1774, did more to awaken England to the hor- 
rors of the African slave trade than any other 
work on the subject. The writer says, "No 
more severe arraignment of slavery than this 
was ever written." This American scourge, 



TKHesleg as a IReformer. 147 

through the influence of Wesley's early Amer- 
ican preachers, who caught their inspiration 
from his Thoughts, felt the force of his burning 
words until that form of slavery, which he de- 
clared to be "the vilest that ever saw the sun/' 
was a thing of the past. For two hundred and 
more years it drifted down, gradually, like 
other forms of barbarism, into the clear light 
of a better civilization, to be finally put to 
death by the Gospel of Methodism. It is true 
that Uncle Tom's Cabin did much, but Wes- 
ley's Thoughts prepared the way for this won- 
derful book. Mr. Wesley must ever be known 
as the man through whose influence slavery 
found a grave, from which Heaven forbid it 
should ever have a resurrection ! 

Temperance. 

In regard to the temperance reform Mr. 
Wesley was as fully pronounced as on the sub- 
ject of slavery. Liquor drinking was prac- 
ticed by all classes, from the archbishop to 
the meanest street scavenger. Ministers by 
the hundred drank to intoxication, and in their 
drunken sprees would head mobs in their as- 
saults on Wesley and his helpers. Wesley 
thundered away at liquor selling and drinking 
like a modern prohibitionist. Take the follow- 
ing from one of his sermons as an example: 

Neither may we gain by hurting our neighbor in 
his body. Therefore we may not sell anything which 



148 zbc H?outt0 fteople's meelev. 

tends to impair his health. Such is eminently all 
that liquid fire called drams of spirituous liquors. 
It is true they may have a place in medicine — may 
be used in some bodily disorders — although there 
would rarely be occasion for them were It not for 
the unskiilfulness of the practitioner. Therefore 
such as prepare and sell them only for this end may 
keep their conscience clean. But who are they who 
prepare and sell them only for this end? Do you 
know ten distillers in England? Then excuse these. 
But all who sell them in the common way, to any 
that will buy, are poisoners in general. They mur- 
der his majesty's subjects by wholesale ; neither do 
their eyes pity or spare. They drive them to hell like 
sheep. And what is their gain ? Is it not the blood of 
these men? Who, then, would enjoy their large estate 
and sumptuous palaces? A curse is In the midst of 
them. A curse cleaves to the stones, the timbers, 
the furniture of them. The curse of God is in their 
gardens, their walks, their groves ; a fire that burns 
to .the nethermost hell! Blood, blood, is there! 
The foundation, the walls, the roof, are stained with 
blood ! And canst thou hope, O man of blood, 
though thou art "clothed In scarlet and fine linen, 
and farest sumptuously every day" — canst thou hope 
to deliver thy fields of blood to the third genera- 
tion? Not so! There is a God in heaven; therefore 
thy name shall be blotted out. Like as those whom 
thou hast destroyed, body and soul, thy memory 
shall perish with thee.* 

He introduced into his Discipline a rule pro- 
hibiting the "buying or selling of spirituous 
liquors, or drinking them, unless in cases of 
extreme necessity." He went for "prohibiting 

forever, making a full end of that bane of 

■ 

* Wesley's Works, vol. i, p. 344. 



TKHesle£ as a Reformer. 149 

health, that destroyer of strength, of life, and 
virtue — distilling." These are his own words. 
He was a prohibitionist in principle, and in 
this respect was in advance of many would-be 
temperance men of these times. To one of his 
preachers he says: "Touch no dram. It is a 
liquid fire. It is a sure, though slow, poison. 
It saps the very spring of life." 

Tobacco. 

Mr. Wesley sought a reformation on the 
tobacco question. He believed that the use 
of the weed was unchristian. He exhorts his 
people: "Use no tobacco. It is an uncleanly 
and unwholesome self-indulgence; and the 
more customary it is the more resolutely 
should you break off from every degree of that 
evil custom. Let Christians be in this bond- 
age no longer. Assert your liberty, and that 
all at once; nothing will be done by degrees."* 

Such were the teachings of John Wesley on 
these subjects — teachings which we regard 
as very remarkable for those times, and fully 
up to the present. 

John Wesley and John Howard Meet. 

In 1787 Mr. Wesley met John Howard, the 

father of prison reform. He says: "I had the 

pleasure of a conversation with Mr. Howard, 

I think one of the greatest men in Europe. 

* Works, vol. vi, p. 746. 



150 Gbe loung ipeople's Wesley. 

Nothing but the almighty power of God can 
enable him to go through his difficult and dan- 
gerous employment. But what can harm us 
if God be on our side?" He says again: 
"God has raised him up to be a blessing to 
mankind." 

Female Preachers. 

It is true that Wesley did not believe that 
female preaching was authorized by the New 
Testament, except under extraordinary cir- 
cumstances. He tells Sarah Crosby that he 
thinks her case rests on her having an "ex- 
traordinary call." He was persuaded, also, 
that every local preacher had a similar call. 
If it were not so, he could not countenance 
their preaching at all. "Therefore I do not 
wonder if several things occur therein which 
do not fall under ordinary rules of discipline. 
St. Paul's ordinary rule was, 'I permit not a 
woman to speak in the congregation;' yet in 
extraordinary cases he makes a few excep- 
tions, at Corinth in particular." 

Mrs. Crosby said : "My soul was much com- 
forted in speaking to the people, as the Lord 
has removed all my scruples respecting the pro- 
priety of my acting thus publicly." 

"I think you have not gone too far," said 
Wesley, though she had preached to hundreds. 
"You could not well do less. All you can do 
more is, when you meet again tell them simply : 



WLeelev as a IReformer. 151 

'You lay me under a great difficulty. The 
Methodists do not allow of women preachers; 
neither do I take upon me any such character. 
But I will just nakedly tell you what is in 
my heart.' I do not see that you have broken 
any law. Go on, calmly and steadily." She 
obeyed, and went on till death. Others fol- 
lowed in the footsteps of Sarah Crosby. Mrs. 
Fletcher preached, and Hester Ann Kogers 
really did the same. 

It is true that female preaching was never 
sanctioned by the Wesleyan Conference, but it 
was substantially practiced to the end of Wes- 
ley's life. He broke the bands which had 
bound women, and which in many Churches 
bind them still, and allowed her to be a public 
advocate of spiritual religion — to tell what 
great things God had done for the soul. 

Speaking of Susannah Wesley, a recent writ- 
er of the Congregational Church says: "The 
Methodist Church owes its system of doctrine 
quite as much, I think, to Susannah Wesley 
as to her illustrious son. To the instruction 
of a woman she added the logic of a gownsman 
and the love of a saint. Finer letters were 
never written. It is not to be wondered at 
that Methodists have been pioneers in the 
enfranchisement of female speech, that they 
have believed in it and practiced it from the 
first. They would have disgraced their origin 
otherwise." 



152 Gbe IPoung peopled •©Heeler 

It will be seen that Methodism has inaugu- 
rated, really, all the great moral reforms of 
the last hundred and fifty years. The great 
missionary movement, which has sent evan- 
gelistic agencies into all the earth, had little 
or no life when Methodism was born. Since 
that time, what hath God wrought! 



CHAPTER XV. 

WESLEY AND AMERICAN METHODISM PRIOR 
TO 1766. 

The real advent of Methodism into Amer- 
ica is a subject demanding special considera- 
tion. It has been generally supposed that its 
first introduction was in 1766 by Barbara 
Heck and Philip Embury, who inaugurated 
religious services at that time in the city of 
New York. But it has always seemed to us 
that Methodism was introduced much earlier. 

There had been no less than five members 
of the "Holy Club"— the Oxford Methodists' 
fraternity — preaching in America prior to 
1766, namely, John and Charles Wesley, Ben- 
jamin Ingham, Charles Delamot, and George 
Whitefield. Whatever may be said of the 
four former, it is certain that George White- 
field was here, from 1740, preaching as a flam- 
ing Methodist evangelist from Maine to Geor- 
gia. These men all accepted Wesley as their 
leader, and looked to him for counsel. 

Mr. Whitefield's first visit to America was 
undertaken with the express purpose of as- 
sisting Wesley in his great work. But Wes- 
ley had left the field before he arrived. George 



154 Gbe J0oun0 people's Wesley. 

Whitefield was an Oxford Methodist, a mem- 
ber of the Holy Club, and possessed an undy- 
ing love for Wesley. He was known in Geor- 
gia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, 
and New England as a Methodist, and until, 
in after years, he drew away from Wesley for 
a time, on some doctrinal question, he was in 
fullest accord with him. Whatever he did in 
America during his first and second visits was 
done as a Methodist. It must be confessed 
that Whitefield did a marvelous work in all 
parts of the country years prior to 1766. He 
was known in New England as a Methodist, 
and the first Methodist chapel ever erected in 
this land was built in Boston, the land of the 
Pilgrims. Charles Wesley stopped in Boston 
several weeks, on his way from Georgia to 
England, and preached several times in Dr. 
Cutler's Church on Salem Street, known as 
Christ Church, and also in King's Chapel. He 
also was known as an Oxford Methodist. 
When Whitefield first entered New England 
he had not separated from Wesley. He had 
been to England since his first visit, and had 
been led, like the Wesleys, into the experience 
of salvation. He at once entered into their 
labors, and had inaugurated outdoor preaching' 
at Bristol. It was not until he had visited 
New England a second, perhaps a third, time, 
and had adopted the views of Calvin as held 
by New England divines, that he drew away 



d&etboDtem lPrior to 1766. 155 

for a time from Wesley. In Pennsylvania, in 
New Jersey, and in New York God wrought 
wonders by this flaming Methodist evanglist. 

The Puritans, who first settled New Eng- 
land, held orthodox views on the subject of 
justification by faith and regeneration by the 
Holy Spirit. This was their faith for more 
than half a century. But when they began 
to decline, legal forms were substituted for 
spiritual power. The "halfway covenant," as 
it was called, was introduced, and under it 
persons became members of the Church with- 
out conversion, and it was not even deemed 
an essential qualification for a minister of the 
Gospel that he be converted. The Church 
and State were united, and the courts by legal 
enactments compelled every man, no matter 
what his religious faith, to sustain a Church 
whose creed he did not believe. The same 
state of things existed in Virginia, where 
Episcopal rule obtained. The whole land 
seemed a "valley of dry bones." There was 
one light in New England. In the obscure 
town of Northampton Jonathan Edwards was 
preaching with marvelous effect, and his in- 
fluence was felt all along the valley of the 
Connecticut; but it had not reached Boston. 
There was one man in Boston who waited for 
the salvation of Israel — Rev. Benjamin Cole- 
man, pastor of Brattle Street Church. He 
had heard of the work in Northampton, and 



156 Gbe Eouna peopled Wesley. 

also of Whitefield, the youthful evangelist in 
the South, and longed to witness the like in 
Boston before he went hence, for he was now 
seventy years of age. He wrote to Whitefield 
at Savannah; the latter, anxious to visit the 
land of the Pilgrims, came in the demonstra- 
tion of the Spirit, and such a revival as at- 
tended his ministry New England had never 
witnessed. A writer of some note giyes the 
following description of his coming: "At the 
close of a beautiful autumn day, in 1740, 
Whitefield had arrived within full view of 
the city of Boston. Its spires were gleaming 
in the rays of the setting sun. Its neat, white 
dwellings were reflected from the mirror sur- 
face of the quiet waters, which nearly sur- 
rounded the whole site. Its attendant villages 
loomed up around the whole horizon. With- 
drawing his eyes from the first glance at the 
city, which lay in full view from the hill on 
which he stood, he looked down the road be- 
fore him, and saw a multitude of people — of- 
ficers of the government, ministers of the Gos- 
pel, citizens, ladies, and children — who had 
all come forth to meet the accomplished 
stranger, and conduct him, amidst smiles and 
blessings, to the city. It must have been an 
interesting hour to the youthful hero of the 
cross. Three thousand miles from his native 
land, among entire strangers, he was wel- 
comed to the renowned city of the Puritans 



Aetbodtem prior to 1766, 157 

with demonstrations of honor which Alexan- 
der, or Caesar, or Napoleon might have coveted. 
He was coming among them, not the gray- 
haired veteran hero of a thousand battles, not 
the brave warrior from the fields of victory, 
not the monarch with patronage and power 
in his hand, but the sincere-hearted, pure- 
minded, and eloquent-tongued Methodist mis- 
sionary, who had drank from the pure fountain 
of evangelical truth, and had now come to 
lead the thirsty Pilgrims of New England to 
the garden of the Lord, 

" ' Where living waters gently pass, 
And full salvation flows.' " 

It must be remembered that this most re- 
markable man was but twenty-six years old, 
and yet England and America had been thrilled 
by the power of his unexampled eloquence. 

The next day he preached in Brattle Street 
Church, then in other churches, hoping- to af- 
ford the people an opportunity to hear. But 
the multitudes were so great that no church 
could accommodate them, so he resorted to the 
open field, as usual. Boston Common was 
thronged with thousands, while three times 
each day he preached to them with an elo- 
quence which Boston had never before heard. 
Hundreds were won to Jesus, and many min- 
isters were aroused and made clearly con- 
scious of their need of salvation. He visited 
some of the adjacent towns, especially Cam- 



158 Gbe ujoung ipeople'e Wesley 

bridge. His eloquent appeals aroused Har- 
vard College from its sleep of a century, and 
there occurred in that institution what never 
happened before or since — a genuine revival 
of religion. It was a wonder then; it would 
be more so now ! Dr. Coleman, a graduate of 
Harvard, wrote at the time: "The college is 
entirely changed. The students are full of 
God, and will, I trust, come out blessings to 
their generation. Many of them appear truly 
born again, and have proved happy instru- 
ments of conversion to their fellows. The 
voice of prayer and of praise fills their cham- 
bers; and sincerity, fervency, and joy, with 
seriousness of heart, set visibly upon their 
faces. I was told yesterday that not seven 
out of the hundred in attendance remained 
unaffected." "That was," says one writer, 
"a strange day for Harvard." 

This was the introduction of Methodism 
into New England, and Whitefield at the 
time was a Methodist evangelist. 

We have said that the first Methodist chapel 
ever erected in America was built in Boston. 
Where is the proof ? We submit the following 
facts : While attending the Methodist Ecumen- 
ical Conference in London, in 1881, Kev. Dr. 
Allison, of Nova Scotia, had occasion to ex- 
amine the archives of the "Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," 
under whose auspices both Wesley and White- 



rtftetbooism prior to 1766, 159 

field came to America. Dr. Allison tells us 
that, in the course of his examination, he 
found letters written by John Wesley while 
in Georgia. He discovered, also, a most im- 
portant letter written by Dr. Cutler, of Bos- 
ton, dated "Boston, Massachusetts Bay Col- 
ony, July, 1750," in which he says: "There 
are in Boston at this time fourteen inde- 
pendent chapels and one or two churches." 
He further adds: "There is, in an obscure al- 
ley, a Baptist chapel, and just now there has 
teen built a Methodist chapel, a form of re- 
ligion which I think will not soon die" (Con- 
ference report, p. 93). But who was this Dr. 
Cutler who wrote the letter from Boston in 
1750? He was Kev. Timothy Cutler, first 
rector of Christ Church, Salem Street, Boston. 
He was president of Yale College as early as 
1720. In 1722 he, with six others, mostly 
Congregationalists, withdrew, and united with 
the Episcopal Church. He immediately sailed 
for England, where he received Episcopal or- 
dination and the title of Doctor in Divinity, 
and was sent by the "Society for the Propaga- 
tion of the Gospel in Foreign Parts" as a mis- 
sionary to Boston. It was under his ministry 
that Christ Church was erected, and it was in 
this church that Charles Wesley, an Oxford 
Methodist, preached in 1736 several times, 
during his detention here while on his way 
from Georgia to England. He speaks of preach- 



160 abe J2oun$ fl>eople'0 meelev. 

ing in Dr. Cutler's church as well as in 
King's Chapel. 

Here is this Episcopal rector, in 1750, 
eighteen years before a Methodist chapel was 
erected in New York or Sam's Creek, Mary- 
land, reporting there was then a Methodist 
chapel in Boston! Dr. Cutler says it "had 
been built." 

Who built this chapel, whether English 
Methodist soldiers or some of Whitefield's 
followers, who might have been pressed out 
of the dead churches, we do not know, but it 
was a Methodist chapel. It might have been 
the former; it may have been the latter. We 
admit the work did not abide. But that was 
not the first time that Methodism failed in 
Boston. Boardman came to Boston, and is 
said to have formed a class here in 1770, or 
near that time. But when Freeborn Garrett- 
son visited Boston, in 1787, no trace of Board- 
man's class could be found. When William 
Black came, a few years later, he found no 
trace of Freeborn Garrettson's work; and 
though Mr. Black had a great revival, when 
Jesse Lee came, in 1798, no fruit of Mr. 
Black's labors were found. It still remains 
true, on the authority of Dr. Cutler, who 
wrote from personal observation, that there 
was a Methodist chapel in Boston in 1750; 
and, if so, it was the first ever erected in 
America. 




ST. ANDREW'S CHURCH AT ErWORTH. 



I 



' 



^3^^8^p 




EPWORTII MEMORIAL CHURCH AT CLEVELAND, O. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

WESLEY AND AMERICAN METHODISM. 

So far as we are able positively to determine 
Methodism in America originated with immi- 
grants from Ireland. To Barbara Heck must 
be given the honor of delivering the first Meth- 
odist exhortation, which aroused Philip Em- 
bury to return from his backslidings to God 
and give himself to the work of the ministry of 
Methodism. Blessed be the name of Barbara 
Heck! An angel would rejoice to share her 
honors! Who can estimate the value of that 
earnest personal appeal to that card-playing 
company ? 

Soon a cry reached the ear of England's 
"flying evangelist" that a fire had been kindled 
in America, where thirty years before he had 
sought in vain to plant a Gospel the power of 
which he did not feel. Thomas Ball, of 
Charleston, speaks of the sheep in the wilder- 
ness needing a shepherd. "They have strayed," 
he says, "from England into the wild woods 
here, and they are running wild after the 
world. They are drinking their wine in bowls, 
and are jumping and dancing, and serving the 
devil in groves and under the green trees. 
And are not these lost sheep? And will none 
11 



162 the 10oung peopled TOealeg. 

of the preachers come here? Where is Brom- 
field? Where is John Pawson? Where is 
Nicholas Manners? Are they living, and will 
they not come ?" This was the cry in and from 
the wilderness. A call for assistance came 
also from Philip Embury. 

Wesley's Conference met in 1769 in Leeds. 
Mr. Wesley put the question: "We have a 
pressing call from our brethren in New York, 
who have built a preaching house, to come over 
and help them. Who is willing to go ?" When 
was ever such a question asked, or call made, 
and Methodist preachers not ready to respond, 
"Here I am, send me" ? An answer came from 
Richard Boardman and Joseph Pilmore, who 
were willing to face the perils of sea and land 
to "save the wandering souls of men." The 
Conference took a collection of twenty pounds 
to pay their passage, and fifty pounds toward 
paying the debt on the "preaching house," as 
an expression of their love for the American 
brethren. Before these godly men had reached 
our shores Captain Webb, late from England, 
and barracks master at Albany, had heard of 
the work in New York, and, being a local 
preacher among the Wesleyans, joined Embury 
and his company and preached to the people in 
his military regimentals, full of faith and 
power — preached with a zeal which attracted 
hundreds to the Methodist faith. 

On the arrival of Boardman and Pilmore — 



Wesley anD American dftetbofctem. 163 

men of God — the work prospered. Boardman 
preached in New York, extending his labors 
as far east as Boston. Pilmore went to Phil- 
adelphia, but extended his labors south as far 
as Charleston, S. C. The ministry of these 
holy men was greatly blessed to the people, 
and new societies were formed as the work 
extended. 

Two years later Wesley made another call, 
and a response came from Francis Asbury and 
Richard Wright. And never did Providence 
seem to overrule in a more manifest manner 
than in the selection of Mr. Asbury. But for 
him it does not seem that one vestige of Metho- 
dism would have survived the War of the Rev- 
olution. He navigated the Methodist ship 
through that fearful storm with consummate 
skill. It is true that he was arrested and fined 
twenty-five dollars for preaching, but he held 
his place. He was obliged to seek shelter in 
the hospitable home of Hon. Thomas White, 
of Delaware, where he remained, partly con- 
cealed, for nearly two years. The military 
authorities then discovered that he was a 
friend and not a foe to American independ- 
ence, and he was thereafter allowed to exercise 
his ministry without annoyance. No peril 
could deter him from his purpose. "In passing 
through the Indian country, west of the moun- 
tains," he is said to have "often encamped in 
the wilderness, where no one ventured to sleep 



164 Zbc $outt0 people's Mesteg* 

except under the protection of a trustworthy- 
sentinel." He possessed the zeal, industry, 
and patience of an apostle. He may truly be 
said to be the father of American Methodism. 
He lived in the affections of a grateful people 
and walked in the constant light of perfect 
love. 

On his coming to America he found only 
14 itinerant ministers, with a few local preach- 
ers, and 371 members. At his death there 
were nearly 700 itinerants, 2,000 local preach- 
ers, and 214,000 members. When unable to 
preach but little he filled his carriage with 
Bibles and Testaments, and scattered them as 
he went, saying, "Whatever I have been doing 
heretofore, now I know I am sowing good 



Dr. Thomas Coke. 
This is a name that must ever stand high 
in the annals of American Methodism. Born 
in Wales in 1747, a graduate of Oxford Uni- 
versity, and settled over South Petherton Par- 
ish, Somersetshire, he became acquainted with 
the Methodists, and, imbibing their spirit, his 
ministry became truly spiritual and faithful 
— so much so that it excited so much opposi- 
tion that he was dismissed from his curacy. 
He naturally sought counsel of Wesley. Mr. 
Wesley says, August 18, 1776: "I went to 
Kingston with Mr. Brown. Here I found a 



Weeley anD Bmerfcan rt&etbofcism. 165 

clergyman, Dr. Coke, late a gentleman and 
commoner of Jesus College, Oxford, who came 
twenty miles on purpose to see me. I had 
much conversation with him, and a union then 
began which I trust shall never end." Dr. 
Coke was of great service to Mr. Wesley in 
many ways, preaching in London and in other 
parts of England and Ireland, and under Mr. 
Wesley's direction he held the Irish Confer- 
ence in 1782. 

In 1784 Dr. Coke was ordained by Mr. Wes- 
ley as general superintendent and sent to 
America, with Kichard Whatcoat and Thomas 
Vassey, to establish a Methodist Church, and 
to ordain Francis Asbury to the same office of 
superintendent that they might conjointly take 
charge of the American work. They arrived 
in America in 1784, and, having conferred 
with Mr. Asbury and other ministers, a gen- 
eral convention of ministers was called, to 
meet on Christmas, for the purpose of organiz- 
ing the Church. 

They assembled in Baltimore, and decided 
to organize an independent Church to be 
called the "Methodist Episcopal Church." 
They elected Dr. Coke and Francis Asbury 
bishops instead of general superintendents. 
And so, on that Christmas Day, 1784, the 
Methodist Episcopal Church became a fact 
for all coming time. 

Dr. Coke has the honor of being the first 



166 Gbe Koung peopled WLeslev. 

Protestant bishop in America, with the excep- 
tion of some visitors who had been sent here 
by the Moravians. 

Dr. Coke very soon returned to England. 
He designed, at first, to make America his 
home; but such were the urgent necessities of 
the work in England, especially after the death 
of Wesley, that the General Conference per- 
mitted him to remain there, but not to exer- 
cise his episcopal functions outside of Amer- 
ica. He resided for many years in England. 
He established missions in the West India 
Islands. He presided for many years in the 
Irish Conference, and frequently in England. 
He made several visits to the United States, 
the last being in 1804. On that occasion he 
went as far east as Boston, spending a full 
week in Providence, R. I. An incident illus- 
trating his humility and undying love for the 
Church of his choice occurred on his visit to 
Providence. A gentleman in New York had 
requested James Burrill, Esq., a lawyer and 
a highly respectable citizen of Providence, to 
receive Dr. Coke with_the honors due an Eng- 
lish bishop, though he was not an English 
bishop. Rev. Thomas Lyell accompanied Dr. 
Coke from Newport to Providence. A crowd 
had assembled on the wharf to see and welcome 
a bishop. Arrangements had been made for 
Dr. Coke's entertainment at the palatial res- 
idence of John Enos Clark, Esq., a wealthy 



Weelcv anD Bmerlcan d&etboDtem. 167 

citizen of Providence, and Mr. Clark's car- 
riage was in waiting. As Dr. Coke landed he 
inquired of Messrs. Clark and Burrell if there 
were any Methodists in the town. They knew 
of none. Mr. Shubal Cady, the class leader, 
being present, came forward and said, "There 
is a small class." He then asked, "Where do 
the Methodist preachers stop when they come 
to town V He was informed that they stopped 
with Mr. Benjamin Turpin, a Quaker gentle- 
man. Dr. Coke then expressed a desire to stop 
there, if convenient. Mr. Turpin, being pres- 
ent, assured him that he would be pleased to 
entertain him, though his accommodations 
were greatly inferior to those of Mr. Clark. 
Mr. Clark's carriage conveyed the bishop to 
the residence of Mr. Turpin, where he re- 
mained during his stay in Providence. 

Dr. Coke was invited to preach in the 
churches. But before he consented he in- 
quired where the Methodist ministers preached 
when they came to town. Being told that they 
preached in an old Town House, he refused all 
other invitations until he had first preached 
where they did. He knew that Methodism was 
weak and despised in Providence, and he was 
determined that the Methodists should receive 
the benefit first of whatever influence his po- 
sition gave him. With him it was Methodism 
first, then a world-wide fraternity with all the 
family of God. 



168 Gbe loung peopled WLeelev. 

The missionary spirit dominated Dr. Coke. 
"He was himself a missionary society." In 
all his journeys he paid his own expenses. At 
the age of nearly seventy he proposed to the 
Wesley an Conference to go personally to the 
East Indies and establish a mission. The Con- 
ference objected on account of expense. He 
offered to bear the entire expense himself, to 
the amount of thirty thousand dollars, and the 
Conference finally consented. He selected six 
men to accompany him, and sailed for the 
Indies. A few days before they expected to 
land Dr. Coke was found dead one morning in 
his stateroom. The mission was established, 
though Dr. Coke was with the glorified. He 
was buried in the Indian Ocean, where, in 
after years, Dr. Judson, the great Baptist mis- 
sionary, rested from his labors. 

It has been said, "No man in Methodism, 
except Wesley, did more for the extension of 
the work through the world than Dr. Coke." 
Mr. Asbury says, "He was a minister of Christ, 
in zeal, in labor, and in services, the greatest 
man of the last century." 

Bishop Asbury continued his labors with 
marvelous success until March, 1816, when, in 
great weakness, he preached his last sermon, 
Sunday, March 24. Hoping to attend the Gen- 
eral Conference, which met in Baltimore, May 
1, he succeeded in reaching Spottsylvania, and 
there, on the afternoon of the following Sun- 



Wesley anfc American dfcetbofctem. 169 

day, he fell asleep in Jesus. Dr. Coke died 
three years before Mr. Asbury. These were 
great, good, and honored men. 

Methodism spread from its first introduc- 
tion. Robert Strawbridge, accompanied by 
Robert Williams and John King, was the first 
to enter Maryland. Captain Webb was the 
first to introduce Methodism into Pennsyl- 
vania. Freeborn Garrettson, assisted by Wil- 
liam Black, was the first to enter New Bruns- 
wick and Nova Scotia. Boardman, Jesse Lee, 
and Freeborn Garrettson were the first to en- 
ter New England, including Massachusetts, 
Maine, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Fran- 
cis Clark, a local preacher, was the first to 
enter Kentucky, in 1782. The first Confer- 
ence preachers were James Haw and Benja- 
min Ogden. We do not know who first entered 
Indiana. Lorenzo Dow was the first to carry 
Methodism into Alabama, in 1803 or 1804. 
Jesse Lee was the first to enter Florida, then 
Spanish, in 1807; he crossed the St. Mary's 
River in a small boat, knelt down in the woods, 
and implored God to claim the territory for 
himself. In 1823 J. N. Gallen was appointed 
to St. Augustine. E. W. Bowman was the first 
to enter Louisiana, in 1805, where the people 
were said to know "nothing of God or reli- 
gion." Joseph Pilmore was first to enter South 
Carolina, in 1773; in 1785, Asbury, not to 
speak of Wesley, in 1736. In 1769 Robert Wil- 



170 Gbe loung people's WLeeley. 

Hams, a local preacher, was first to enter Vir- 
ginia and preach his first sermon at Norfolk. 
Joseph Tillard was the first Methodist preach- 
er to enter Illinois; he formed the first class. 
Nathan Bangs preached the first Methodist 
sermon in Detroit, Mich., and William Mitch- 
ell organized the first class. Beverly Allen 
preached first in Georgia, in 1785. In 1835 L. 
Stevens entered Iowa. In 1849 William Kob- 
erts and J. H. Wilber, on their way to Oregon, 
spent some time in San Francisco, and in 1849 
Isaac Owen and William Taylor were sent as 
missionaries to California. Wisconsin first 
heard the Gospel from John Clark. 

We have thus given the dates of the intro- 
duction of Methodism into the several States, 
and the names of the preachers so far as we 
are able to ascertain. There may be some 
mistakes in these dates and names, but they 
are substantially correct. 

But this work was not prosecuted without 
fearful persecution. Not all suffered equally. 
Freeborn Garrettson, in a letter to Mr. Wesley, 
says: "Once I was imprisoned, twice beaten, 
left on the highway speechless and senseless 
(I must have gone to the world of spirits 
had not God sent a good Samaritan that took 
me to a f riend's house) ; once shot at ; guns 
and pistols presented to my breast; once de- 
livered from an armed mob, in the dead of 
night, on the highway by a flash of lightning; 



WLeelcy an& Bmerican d&etbo&tem. 171 

surrounded frequently by mobs; stoned fre- 
quently. I have had to escape for my life at 
the dead of night. O, shall I ever forget the 
divine Hand which has supported me?" Of 
his sufferings and labors in Nova Scotia he 
writes: "I have traveled mountains and val- 
leys frequently on foot, with my knapsack on 
my back, guided by Indian paths in the wil- 
derness when it was not expedient to take a 
horse; and I had often to wade through mo- 
rasses, half a leg deep in mud and water, fre- 
quently satisfying my hunger with a piece of 
bread and pork from my knapsack, quenching 
my thirst from a brook, and resting my weary 
limbs on the leaves of the trees. Thanks be to 
God! He compensated me for all my trials, 
for many precious souls were awakened and 
converted to God." These holy men cared 
not how they lived, what trials they endured, 
what hardships they suffered, so that souls 
were won to Christ. These were but few of 
their sufferings. 

One has said: "They braved the rigors of 
severe winters, and the perils of flood and for- 
est; they slumbered on hardest pillows and 
housed in lowliest hovels. But in their work 
they were joyous ; in their trials they were pa- 
tient; in their homes they were contented; in 
their journeyings the woods echoed their 
songs; in their pulpits they had power with 
man; in their persecutions they prayed for 



172 Gbe founa peopled meeley. 

their enemies; in their old age they testify 
they have not followed 'cunningly devised fa- 
bles ;' in their death hour they are borne up on 
their shields, 'where the wicked cease from 
troubling, and the weary are at rest.' And in 
their final home, 'These are they who came up 
out of great tribulation, and have washed 
their robes and made them white in the blood 
of the Lamb; thenceforth they are before the 
throne.' " We are now reaping the fruit of 
their toil and enjoying the rich heritage they 
have bequeathed to us. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

WESLEY APPROACHING THE CLOSE OP LIFE. 

Though persecution and opposition followed 
John Wesley from the day he lifted up a stand- 
ard of holiness within the classic walls of 
Oxford to the hour that God's chariot bore 
him to the city of the Great King, he never 
faltered in his purpose nor abated his zeal for 
an hour. As his end drew near, the opposi- 
tion which had been so relentless began to give 
way. In many places it became greatly mod- 
ified, and in others nearly extinct. That a 
great change had come began to be manifest 
in public opinion and feeling. Mob violence, 
which once swept everything, had entirely sub- 
sided, and towns and cities which once wel- 
comed him with brickbats and rotten eggs now 
hailed him as the greatest of modern evangel- 
ists. Many who bade him depart out of their 
coasts as a crazy fanatic now thought it an 
honor to welcome him as a man of many vir- 
tues and unparalleled labors. In 1789, visiting 
Falmouth, Mr. Wesley says: "The last time I 
was here, above forty years ago, I was taken 
prisoner by an immense mob, gaping and roar- 
ing like lions. But how is the tide turned! 



174 abe IPoung peopled Wesley. 

High and low now lined the street, from one 
end of the town to the other, out of stark love, 
gaping and staring as if the king were going 
by." 

Wesley outlived all his early colaborers. 
He saw them fall one by one, until he stood 
alone of them all, waiting and watching, but 
pressing toward the mark for the prize. 

The first to fall was the zealous, deeply con- 
secrated, and profoundly intellectual Walsh, 
at the age of twenty-eight, one of the best bib- 
lical scholars of his day. His last words were, 
"He's come! He's come!" and a cloud re- 
ceived him from human sight. Of him Wes- 
ley said: "Such a master of Bible knowledge 
I never saw before and never expect to see 
again. If he was questioned concerning any 
Hebrew word in the Old, or any Greek word 
in the New, Testament, he could tell, after a 
little pause, not only how often the one or the 
other occurred in the Bible, but also what it 
meant in every place." 

Next to follow him was the earnest, fearless, 
honest Grimshaw, exclaiming: "I am happy 
as I can be in this world, and as sure of heaven 
as though I were there. I have my foot on the 
threshold already." 

Next fell Whitefield, in America, one of the 
most eloquent and effective preachers that 
ever lifted up his voice among men, by which 
Wesley was greatly moved. 



Bpproacbfng tbe Close of Xffe. 175 

Then followed the amiable, venerable Per- 
ronet, of Shoreham, whom Charles Wesley 
was wont to call "the Archbishop of Metho- 
dism." 

Then fell the most saintly man of his time 
— a real translation — the seraphic Fletcher, 
shouting, "God is love ! O, for a gust of praise 
to go to the ends of the earth!" Mr. Wesley 
says of him: "For many years I despaired of 
finding an inhabitant of Great Britain that 
could stand in any degree of comparison with 
Gregory Lopez or Mons. de Renty. But let 
any impartial person judge if Mr. Fletcher 
was at all inferior to them. Did he not expe- 
rience deep communion with God, and as high 
a measure of inward holiness as was experi- 
enced by either one or the other of those burn- 
ing and shining lights? And it is certain his 
outward light shone before men with full as 
bright a luster as theirs. I was intimately 
acquainted with him for thirty years. I con- 
versed with him morning, noon, and night, 
without the least reserve, during a journey of 
many hundred miles, and in all that time I 
never heard him speak an improper word or 
saw him do an improper action. To conclude, 
within fourscore years I have known many 
excellent men, holy in heart and life, but one 
equal to him I have not known; one so uni- 
formly and deeply devoted to God, so unblam- 
able a man in every respect I have not found 



1?6 izbe f ouna people's tfllesieg. 

either in Europe or America. Nor do I ex- 
pect to find another such on this side eternity." 
• Next came the sad tidings of the death of 
his brother Charles, but little, if at all, inferior 
to Whitefield as a preacher, and whose sacred 
lyrics will live so long as human hearts are 
melted and charmed by the power of song. 
Just before the silver cord was loosed he re- 
quested his wife to write — it was his last : 

"In age and feebleness extreme, 
Who shall a sinful worm redeem? 
Jesus, my only hope thou art, 
Strength of my falling flesh and heart : 
O could I catch one smile from thee, 
And drop into eternity !" 

At the very moment that Charles was bid- 
ding adieu to earth John was at Shropshire, 
and the congregation was engaged in singing: 

"Come, let us join our friends above 

That have obtained the prize, 
And on the eagle wings of love 

To joys celestial rise. 
Let all the saints terrestrial sing, 

With those to glory gone ; 
For all the servants of our King, 

In earth and heaven, are one. 

"One family we dwell in him, 

One church above, beneath, 
Though now divided by the stream, 

The narrow stream, of death. 
One army of the living God, 

To his command we bow; 
Part of his host have crossed the flood, 

And part are crossing now." 




THE ROOM IN WHICH WESLEY DIED. 



Bpproacbfng tbe Close of Xtfe. 177 

Thus friend after friend departed, but "Wes- 
ley pressed forward with a zeal which knew 
no abatement until eighty and seven years 
had passed over him. 

On his last birthday he writes: "This day 
I enter into my eighty-eighth year. For above 
eighty-six years I found none of the infirm- 
ities of old age; my eye did not wax dim, 
neither was my natural strength abated. But 
last August I found almost a sudden change 
— my eyes were so dim that no glasses would 
help me; my strength likewise quite forsook 
me and probably will not return in this world. 
But I feel no pain from head to foot, only it 
seems nature is exhausted, and, humanly 
speaking, will sink more and more till 

'The weary springs of life stand still at last.' " 

He attended and presided at his last Con- 
ference, held at Bristol, July 20, 1790. Anx- 
ious to devote every hour and moment to the 
service of the Master, he visits Cornwall, Lon- 
don, and the Isle of Wight, and then returns 
to Bristol. He is again in London, and then 
he is seen standing under the shade of a large 
tree at Winchelsea, preaching his last outdoor 
sermon. Though unable to preach longer in 
the open air, he still continues to preach "the 
glorious Gospel of the blessed God/' At Col- 
chester rich and poor, clergy and laity, throng 
to hear him in wondering crowds. At Nor- 
12 



178 Gbe l^oung people's "Wesley. 

wich, where once mob violence swept every- 
thing, he is received as an angel of mercy. At 
Yarmouth the house is thronged. At Lynn all 
the clergymen in the town, save one who was 
lame, came out to hear him. 

Again he is in London preaching in all his 
chapels, and even making preparations to visit 
Ireland and Scotland, but these last visits 
his failing strength will not allow. Well does 
Tyerman call him "the flying evangelist." 

The shadows are lengthening, and he seems 
conscious that his end is near. He preaches 
his last sermon at Leatherhead, Wednesday, 
February 3, 1791, from Isa. lv, 6: "Seek ye 
the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon 
him while he is near." He concluded the ser- 
mon by singing one of Charles Wesley's 
hymns: 

"O that without a lingering groan 
I may the welcome word receive ; 

My body with my charge lay down, 
And cease at once to work and live !" 

On that day fell from his lips a Gospel trump- 
et which had sounded the word of life more 
frequently and effectually than was ever known 
to have been done by an uninspired man. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

WESLEY AND HIS TRIUMPHANT DEATH. 

Wesley had reached his home — City Road — 
the proper place from which to be translated 
to his heavenly mansion. He is waiting for 
the chariot. His friends are deeply anxious. 
Joseph Bradford sends the following dispatch 
to the preachers: 

"Dear brethren, Mr. Wesley is very ill. 
Pray! Pray! Pray!" 

Looking over the whole of an extended life 
of unparalleled labor and suffering, he ex- 
claims : 

"I the chief of sinners am, 
But Jesus died for me." 

The day following he was heard to say, 
"There is no way into the holiest but by the 
blood of Jesus." 

He frequently, with full heart, sang Watts's 
rapturous hymn, beginning : 

"I'll praise my Maker while I've breath." 

The tide of life is rapidly ebbing, but light 
from the realms above reveals to his enrap- 
tured soul the glories of his eternal home. Col- 
lecting all his remaining strength, he joyfully 
exclaims, "The best of all is, God is with us." 



180 Gbe l^ounQ peopled WLeeley. 

The chamber where the good man gathered 
up his feet in death seemed radiant with the 
divine glory. A few of his preachers and in- 
timate friends were there — Bradford, long his 
traveling companion; Dr. Whitehead, after- 
ward his biographer; Kogers and his devoted 
wife, Hester Ann, who ministered to him in 
his last hours; the daughter of Charles Wes- 
ley; Thomas Eankin; George Whitefield, his 
book steward; and a few others. They knelt 
around the couch of the dying saint. Bradford 
prayed. Then with a low but almost angelic 
whisper he said, "Farewell/' It was his last. 
And at the moment Bradford was saying, in a 
petition which must have reached the throne 
of God, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and 
be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and this 
heir of glory shall come in." While they thus 
lingered "the weary wheels of life" stood still, 
and the unparalleled career of John Wesley 
was ended at 10 a. m., March 2, 1791. 

Hester Ann Kogers, who was present, says: 
"And while he could hardly be said to be an 
inhabitant of earth, being now speechless, and 
his eyes fixed, victory and glory were written 
on his countenance, and quivered, as it were, 
on his dying lips. No language can paint what 
appeared in that face! The more we gazed 
upon it the more we saw heaven unspeakable." 

Thus lived and died the founder of the 
Methodist denomination. 



IKaeeleig an& Me Grfumpbant S)eatb* 181 

It was remembered that when the mother of 
Wesley was dying she said, "Children, as soon 
as I am dead sing a song of praise." So, as 
Wesley himself ceased to breathe, his friends, 
standing about his lifeless form, sang: 

"Waiting to receive thy spirit, 
Lo ! the Saviour stands above ; 

Shows the purchase of his merit, 
Reaches out the crown of love." 

He had requested in his will, and, in the 
name of God, most solemnly adjured his exec- 
utors scrupulously to observe it, that six poor 
men should carry his body to the grave, and 
should receive one pound each for the same. 
He requested that there should be no display, 
no hearse, no coach, no escutcheon, no pomp, 
except the tears of those who loved him and 
were following him to Abraham's bosom. All 
these directions were strictly observed. 

He was buried in the cemetery of the City 
Road Chapel. 

Mr. Wesley's death attracted public notice 
beyond any former example not only in Lon- 
don, but throughout the United Kingdom. 
Thousands of his people, with the traveling 
preachers, went into mourning for him. The 
pulpits of the Methodists and of many other 
denominations were draped in black, and hun- 
dreds of sermons were preached on the sub- 
ject of his death. 



182 Gbe Remits peopled meslev. 

His indefatigable zeal had long been wit- 
nessed by all classes ; but his motives had been 
variously estimated. Some attributed it to 
love of popularity, others to ambition, and oth- 
ers to love of wealth; but it now appeared that 
he was actuated by a pure regard for the im- 
mortal interests of mankind. Many ministers, 
both of the Establishment and among Dis- 
senters, spoke with great respect of his long, 
laborious, devoted, and useful life, and ear- 
nestly exhorted their hearers to follow him as 
he followed Christ. 

"He was a man," says Lord Macaulay, "whose 
eloquence and logical acuteness might have 
rendered him eminent in literature ; whose gen- 
ius for government was not inferior to that 
of Eichelieu; and who devoted all his powers, 
in defiance of obloquy and derision, to what he 
sincerely considered the highest good of his 
species." 

The ardor of his spirit was never damp- 
ened by difficulties nor subdued by age. The 
world ascribed this to enthusiasm, but he as- 
cribed it to the grace of God. Whatever it 
was, it has commanded the respect of the 
present generation. He who was expelled 
from all the churches as a madman and a 
fanatic is now deemed worthy of a most 
eligible niche in England's grandest cathe- 
dral. 

Dr. Watts's admirable elegy on Thomas 



Wesley anfc bis Grfumpbant 2>eatb. 183 

Gouge has been applied to the death of Wes- 
ley: 

"The muse that mourns a nation's fall 

Should wait at Wesley's funeral ; 

Should mingle majesty and groans, 

Such as she sings to sinking thrones ; 

And in deep-sounding numbers tell 

How Zion trembled when this pillar fell ; 

Zion grows weak, and England poor, 

Nature herself, with all her store, 

Can furnish such a pomp for death no more." 

On the monument in Westminster Abbey is 
the simple inscription: 

JOHN WESLEY, M.A. 
Born June 17, 1703; Died March 2, 1791. 

CHAKLES WESLEY, M.A. 
Born December 17, 1707; Died March 29, 

1788. 

This is engraved upon the tablet: 

"I look upon all the world as my parish." 

"The best of all is, God is with us." 

"God buries his workmen, but carries on his work." 

The first two were the utterances of John, 
and the last of Charles, Wesley. 

The following poem was written by the 
"Bard of Sheffield," Hon. James Montgomery, 



184 Gbe !2oun0 peopled meelev. 

on the first centennial of Wesleyan Methodism, 
1836. It is a beautiful tribute: 

A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 
One song of praise, one voice of prayer, 

Around, above, below ; 
Ye winds and waves the burden bear, 

A hundred years ago ! 

A hundred years ago ! What then ? 

There rose the world to bless 
A little band of faithful men — 

A cloud of witnesses. 

It looked but like a human hand ; 

Few welcomed it, more feared. 
But as it opened o'er the land 

The hand of God appeared. 

The Lord made bare his holy arm 

In sight of earth and hell ; 
Fiends fled before it with alarm, 

And alien armies fell. 

God gave the word, and great has been 

The preachers' company. 
What wonders have our fathers seen ! 

What signs their children see ! 

One song of praise for mercies past, 
Through all our courts resound ; 

One voice of prayer, that to the last 
Grace may much more abound. 

All hall ! a hundred years ago ! 

And when our lips are dumb, 
Be millions heard rejoicing so, 

A hundred years to corne. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

wesley's character as estimated by un- 
biased JUDGES. 

Rev. Dr. Rigg, author of The Living Wes- 
ley, says: "No single man for centuries has 
moved the world as Wesley moved it; since 
Luther, no man." 

Dr. Abel Stevens, the historian of Metho- 
dism, says Mr. Wesley "possessed, in an emi- 
nent degree, one trait of a master mind — 
the power of comprehending and managing 
at once the outlines and details of plans. It 
is this power that forms the philosophical 
genius in science ; it is essential to the success- 
ful commander and great statesman. It is il- 
lustrated in the whole economical system of 
Methodism." 

Bishop Coke, in speaking of Mr. Wesley's 
unbounded benevolence, says: "Sometimes, in- 
deed, the love which believeth and hopeth all 
things, of which he had so large a share, laid 
him open to imposition, and wisdom slept at 
the door of love; if there was any fault in his 
public character, it was an excess of mercy." 

Mr. Lecky (no mean judge) has this to say : 
"The evangelical movement which directly or 



186 XLbc Wovmq peopled TKHesle^ 

indirectly originated with Wesley produced a 
general revival of religious feeling which has 
incalculably increased the efficiency of almost 
every religious body in the community, while 
at the same time it has materially affected 
party politics." 

In Green's History of the English People 
he speaks of Wesley and Whitefield thus: "In 
power as a preacher Wesley ranked next to 
Whitefield; as a hymn writer he stood second 
to his brother Charles. But, combining in 
some degree the excellences of either, he pos- 
sessed qualities in which both were utterly 
deficient — an indefatigable industry, cool 
judgment, command over others, a faculty of 
organization, and a union of patience and 
moderation, with an imperious ambition which 
marked him as a ruler of men." "If men 
may be measured by the work they have ac- 
complished, John Wesley can hardly fail to 
be recorded as the greatest figure that has 
appeared in the religious world since the days 
of the Reformation." 

When Dean Stanley, in 1876, unveiled the 
memorial tablet erected in Westminster Abbey 
to the memory of John and Charles Wesley, 
consisting of medallion profiles of these great 
men, he said: "John Wesley is presented as 
preaching on his father's tomb, and I have al- 
ways thought that it is, as it were, a parable 
which represented his relation to national in- 



WLeelev'e Cbaracter. 187 

stitutions. He took his stand on his father's 
tomb — on the venerable and ancestral tradi- 
tions of the country and the Church. That 
was the stand from which he addressed the 
world ; it was not from points of disagreement, 
but from the points of agreement, with those 
in the Christian religion that he produced 
those great effects which have never since died 
out in English Christendom. It is because of 
his having been in that age, which I am in- 
clined to think has been unduly disparaged, the 
reviver of religious fervor among our churches 
that we all feel we owe him a debt of gratitude, 
and that he ought to have this monument 
placed among those of the benefactors of Eng- 
land. These men had a perfect right to this 
national and lasting honor." 

Mr. Augustin Birrell, queen's councilor and 
member of Parliament, in a lecture before the 
Royal Institute of London, says of John Wes- 
ley : "The life of John Wesley, who was born in 
1703 and died in 1791, covered, practically, the 
whole of the eighteenth century, of which he 
was one of the most remarkable and strenuous 
figures, and his Journals were the most amaz- 
ing records of human exertion ever penned 
by man. Those who have ever contested a 
parliamentary election know how exhausting 
was the experience ; yet John Wesley contested 
the three kingdoms in the cause of Christ, and 
during the contest, which lasted forty-four 



188 Gbe 10oun0 peopled meslev. 

years, he paid more turnpike toll than any 
man who ever lived. His usual record of trav- 
el was eight thousand miles a year [we think 
this an overestimate], and even when he was 
an old man it seldom fell below five thousand 
miles. Wesley was a great bit of the eighteenth 
century, and was, therefore, a great revealing 
record of the century. He was a cool, level- 
headed man, and had he devoted his talents to 
any other pursuit than that of spreading reli- 
gion he must have acquired a large fortune; 
but from the first day of his life, almost, he 
learned to regard religion as his business," 

"A greater poet may rise than Homer or 
Milton," says Dr. Dobbins, "a greater theolo- 
gian than Calvin, a greater philosopher than 
Bacon, a greater dramatist than any of ancient 
or modern fame; but a more distinguished re- 
vivalist of the churches than John Wesley, 
never." 

"Taking him altogether," says Mr. Tyerman, 
"Wesley is a man sui generis. He stands 
alone; he has no successor; no one like him 
went before; no contemporary was a coequal. 
There was a wholeness about the man such 
as is rarely seen. His physique, his genius, his 
wit, his penetration, his judgment, his memory, 
his beneficence, his religion, his diligence, his 
conversation, his courteousness, his manners, 
and his dress made him as perfect as we ever 
expect man to be on this side of heaven," He 



Wicelc^s Gbaracter. 189 

arose with the lark, traveled with the sun, 
preached like an angel through three king- 
doms, claimed the world for his parish, and 
died like a hero, shouting, "The best of all is, 
God is with us." 

Wilberforce said, "I consider Wesley as the 
most influential mind of the last century — the 
man who will have produced the greatest ef- 
fects centuries, or perhaps millenniums, hence, 
if the present race of men should continue so 
long." 

No more graphic description of the Wes- 
leyan movement has appeared than that given 
by F. W. Farrar, Dean of Canterbury. He 
says: 

John Wesley found a Church forgetful and neg- 
lectful of Its duties, somnolent In the plethora of 
riches, and either unmindful or unwisely mindful 
of the poor. He found churches empty, dirty, neg- 
lected, crumbling into hideous disrepair ; he found 
the work of the ministry performed in a manner 
scandalously perfunctory. . . . But John Wesley, be- 
coming magnetic with moral sincerity, flashed into 
myriads of hearts fat as brawn, cold as ice, hard as 
the nether millstone, the burning spark of his 
own intense convictions, and thus he saved the 
Church. . . . 

Although the world and the Church have learned 
to be comparatively generous to Wesley, now that a 
hundred years have sped away, and though the roar 
of contemporary scandal has long since ceased, I 
doubt whether even now he is at all adequately ap- 
preciated. I doubt whether many are aware of the 
extent to which to this day the impulse to every 
great work of philanthropy and social reformation 



190 tTbe 10oun0 peopled Wicelc^ 

has been due to his energy and Insight. The Brit- 
ish and the Foreign Bible Society, the Religious 
Tract Society, the London Missionary Society, even 
the Church Missionary Society, owe not a little to 
his initiative. The vast spread of religious instruc- 
tion by weekly periodicals, and the cheap press, with 
all its stupendous consequences, were inaugurated by 
him. He gave a great extension to Sunday schools 
and the work of Robert Raikes. He gave a great 
impulse both to national education and to technical 
education, and in starting the work of Silas Told, 
the foundry teacher, he anticipated the humble and 
holy work of John Pounds, the Portsmouth cobbler. 
He started in his own person the funeral reform, 
which is only now beginning to attract public atten- 
tion, when in his will he directed that at his obse- 
quies there should be no hearse, no escutcheon, no 
coach, no pomp. He visited prisons and ameliorated the 
lot of prisoners before John Howard ; and his very 
last letter was written to stimulate William Wil- 
berforce in his parliamentary labors for the eman- 
cipation of the slave. When we add to this the re- 
vival of fervent worship and devout hymnology 
among Christian congregations, and their deliver- 
ance from the drawling doggerel of Sternhold and 
Hopkins, and the frigid nullities of Tate and Brady, 
we have indeed shown how splendid was the list 
of his achievements, and that, as Isaac Taylor says, 
he furnished "the starting point for our modern 
religious history in all that is characteristic of the 
present time." 

And yet, in this long and splendid catalogue, we 
have not mentioned his greatest and most distinctive 
work, which was that through him to the poor the 
Gospel was again preached. Let Whitefield have the 
credit of having been the first to make the green grass 
his pulpit and the heaven his sounding-board ; but 
Wesley instantly followed, at all costs, the then dar- 
ing example, and through all evil report and all 



mesletfe Cbaracter* 191 

furious opposition he continued it until at last at 
Kingswood, at the age of eighty-one, he preached 
in the open air, under the shade of trees which he 
himself had planted, and surrounded by the chil- 
dren and children's children of his old disciples, who 
had long since passed away. Overwhelming evidence 
exists to show what preaching was before and in 
his day ; overwhelming evidence exists to show what 
the Church and people of England were before and 
in his day — how dull, how vapid, how soulless, how 
Christless was the preaching ; how torpid, how Laod- 
icean was the Church ; how godless, how steeped in 
immorality was the land. To Wesley was mainly 
granted the task, for which he was set apart by the 
hands of invisible consecration — the task which even 
an archangel might have envied him — of awakening 
a mighty revival of the religious life in those dead 
pulpits, in that slumbering Church, in that corrupt 
society. His was the religious sincerity which not 
only founded the Wesleyan community, but, working 
through the heart of the very Church which had de- 
spised him, flashed fire into her whitening embers. 
Changing its outward forms, the work of John Wes- 
ley caused, first, the evangelical movement, then the 
high church movement, and, in its enthusiasm of hu- 
manity, has even reappeared in all that is best in 
the humble Salvationists, who learned from the ex- 
ample of Wesley what Bishop Lightfoot called "that 
lost secret of Christianity, the compulsion of human 
souls." Recognizing no utterance of authority as 
equally supreme with that which came to him from 
the Sinai of conscience, Wesley did the thing and 
scorned the consequence. His was the voice which 
offered hope to the despairing and welcome to the 
outcast. . . . The poet says : 

"Of those three hundred grant but three 
To make a new Thermopylae." 

And when I think of John Wesley, the organizer, 



192 Gbe l^oung peopled Wicelev. 

of Charles Wesley, the poet, of George Whitefield, 
the orator, of this mighty movement, I feel inclined 
to say of those three self-sacrificing and holy men, 
Grant but even one to help in the mighty work 
which yet remains to be accomplished ! Had we but 
three such now, 

"Hoary-headed selfishness would feel 
His deathblow, and would totter to his grave ; 
A brighter light attend the human day, 
When every transfer of earth's natural gift 
Should be a commerce of good words and works." 

We have, it Is true, hundreds of faithful workers 
In the Church of England and in other religious com- 
munities. But for the slaying of dragons, the re- 
kindlement of irresistible enthusiasm, the redress of 
intolerable wrongs, a Church needs many Pente- 
costs and many resurrections. And these, in the 
providence of God, are brought about, not by com- 
mittees and conferences and common workers, but 
by men who escape the average ; by men who come 
forth from the multitude ; by men who, not content to 
trudge on in the beaten paths of commonplace and 
the cart-ruts of routine, go forth, according to their 
Lord's command, into the highways and hedges ; by 
men in whom the love of God burns like a con- 
suming flame upon the altar of the heart ; by men 
who have become electric to make myriads of other 
souls thrill with their own holy zeal. Such men 
are necessarily rare, but God's richest boon to any 
nation, to any society, to any Church, is the pres- 
ence and work of such a man — and such a man 
was John Wesley. 




JOHN WESLEY'S GRAVE. 



CHAPTER XX. 

THE GREATER WESLEY OP THE OPENING 
CENTURY. 

When on March 2, 1791, John Wesley 
closed his eyes to earth and opened them in 
heaven the visible results of his life were 
already great. At the opening of this new 
century they are greater. Only a few rods 
from where he his "body with his charge laid 
down, and ceased at once to work and live," 
is Wesley's Chapel, City Road, the head cen- 
ter of universal Methodism. Standing on the 
walls of this Zion in 1791 and looking around, 
what would we see? 

Confining our vision within the bounds of 
Great Britain and Ireland, we would see this 
chapel surrounded by 644 others, "wholly ap- 
propriate to the worship of God." These 
chapels are ministered unto by 294 itinerant 
preachers, and have an enrollment of 71,668 
members of the societies. 

Extending our vision to the regions beyond, 
in the Wesleyan Methodist missions in 
France, the West Indies, Nova Scotia, and 
Newfoundland, we would see in 1791 an en- 
rolled membership of 5,300, looked after by 
19 ministers; giving as the total of Wesleyan 
13 



194 Gbe )0oun0 people's WLeelev. 

Methodists at that time 76,968, and 313 
ministers. 

In addition to the home and foreign work 
of which John Wesley was the head, and City 
Road Chapel the center, was the Methodism 
of the United States, which in 1790 reported 
43,265 members and 198 ministers, and which 
was known as "The Methodist Episcopal 
Church of America." So that we would see 
as the total of Methodists in the world at 
Wesley's last Conference, in 1790, 120,233 
members, and 511 ministers. Besides these, 
a great number who, from 1739 to 1790, saved 
by Methodist agency, had been transferred to 
the Church above. 

Let us now in this year 1901 stand again on 
the walls of this old Methodist cathedral and 
look around us for the living monument of 
the greater Wesley. With the March quarter- 
ly meetings' returns in our hands we see that 
in Great Britain alone "the total number of 
persons meeting in class, seniors and juniors, 
is 573,140, an increase for the year of 12,937." 
To these must be added the 46,262 full mem- 
bers and 11,619 "on trial" in the Wesleyan 
foreign missions reported in 1899. All these 
are under the government of the mother Con- 
ference. Then there are the Irish, French, 
South African, and West Indian Conferences, 
which are affiliated to it ; and to these must be 
added the detached bodies, such as the Aus- 



Gbe Greater tlWesles. 195 

tralian Methodist Church, the Methodist New 
Connection, Wesleyan Keform Union, Prim- 
itive Methodists, Bible Christians, United 
Methodist Free Churches, and Independent 
Methodist Churches, all included in "Old 
World Methodism," and rolling up the grand 
totals of 25,675 churches, 1,201,663 members 
and probationers, and 64,550 traveling and 
local preachers. 

Thus the great Methodism of the Old World 
in 1791, with its 313 ministers and 76,968 
members, in 1901 has become the greater 
Methodism, with 64,550 preachers and 1,201,- 
663 members. 

Let the point of view now be changed from 
City Eoad Chapel, London, to John Street 
Methodist Episcopal Church, in New York 
city, for a survey of the New World Meth- 
odism. To the north is the Methodist Church 
of Canada, with 11 Conferences and a mis- 
sion in China, with a ministry, traveling and 
local, of 4,322, and a membership of 284,901. 
The missions in Nova Scotia and Newfound- 
land, in 1791, have thus developed and become 
the greater Canadian Methodism. 

After this telescopic view let the vision be 
confined to American Methodism. We are 
still at old John Street Church in New York 
city. The Methodist tree, planted on this 
spot in 1766, has spread itself out into 16 
branches, which with the parent trunk in- 



196 tTbe !£oun0 peopled meetey. 

eludes 9 white and 8 colored growths. The 
43,265 American Methodists of 1790 have 
grown into 5,916,349 in 1901, and the 198 
ministers have increased to 37,907, who preach 
in 54,351 Methodist churches. The Metho- 
dists lead the ecclesiastical hosts in America 
in the matter of members, and stand second 
only to the Roman Catholics, who count all 
adherents as communicants. The latter claim 
8,766,083 by including all born into their 
families. Roman Catholicism in America 
has for its sharpest competitor American 
Methodism. If the Methodists counted their 
adherents as the Catholics do they would 
claim about 18,000,000 over against the Cath- 
olics less than 9,000,000. 

The names of the branches of the American 
Methodist family are : 1. The Methodist Epis- 
copal; 2. Union American Methodist Episco- 
pal; 3. African Methodist Episcopal; 4. Afri- 
can Union Methodist Protestant; 5. African 
Methodist Episcopal Zion; 6. Methodist Prot- 
estant; 7. Wesleyan Methodist; 8. Methodist 
Episcopal, South; 9. Congregational Metho- 
dist ; 10. Congregational Methodist (colored) ; 
11. New Congregational Methodist; 12. Zion 
Union Apostolic; 13. Colored Methodist Epis- 
copal; 14. Primitive Methodist; 15. Free 
Methodist; 16. Independent Methodist; 17. 
Evangelical Missionary. These all claim to 
be one in doctrine, one in spirit and aim, and 



Gbe Greater meelev. 197 

should be one in piety. Would that they 
were all one in Church union! 

Epworth Leaguers will be more especially 
interested in the progress of their own Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church, which is the oldest 
daughter, as well as the largest branch, of 
Wesleyan Methodism. From The Methodist 
Year Boole, 1901, we learn that our "lay mem- 
bership — total of full members and probation- 
ers (on partial returns only)— is 2,907,877." 
Dr. H. K. Carroll in The Christian Advocate, 
January 3, 1901, tells the story of progress so 
well that we insert the entire article: 



Only living things grow. The abundant life of Amer- 
ican Methodism, beginning under favorable conditions, 
made growth natural, luxuriant, and easy. The soil 
and the sun, the air and the rains, were all that the 
fresh, vigorous plant needed for a development which 
has been truly amazing. 

Time, 1766 ; place, New York ; a godly woman call- 
ing a few backslidden Methodists to their duty ; a 
local preacher ; meetings in a sail loft ; a new church 
costing $3,000. Such was the beginning. 

The soil was fallow. It produced rank weeds. There 
were few husbandmen. Other churches Insisted on 
well-trained men from European schools. Methodism, 
having no such resources, organized training classes 
on the field and taught its men at the plow. Such 
were the conditions. 

Time, 1784 ; place, Baltimore ; a plain meetinghouse 
with stiff benches ; 60 preachers in Conference ; an 
independent Church, with a name, an episcopacy, a 
ministry, the sacraments, a practical system, a doc- 
trinal standard, a ritual. Such was the organization. 
What has been the growth? 

A growth of 2,900,000 in 134 years and of 2,835,000 
in the past century. The 65,000 has added to itself 



198 Gbe louna ipeople's WLeelev. 

nearly 44 times. The average annual gain has been 
28,350. 

The percentage of increase is 4,362. If the popula- 
tion of the country had increased in this period at the 
same rate, it would now be 232,000,000 instead of 
76,300,000. 

But the gains of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
have been only a part of the gains of Methodism. In- 
clude all branches since 1834, and we have : 

The 65,000 has repeated itself about 91 times, or 
once every 13 months during the last century. The 
percentage of gain is 8,977. If the population had 
increased at the same rate it would now be 476,000,- 
000 instead of 76,300,000. The average annual gain 
has been 58,350. 

The gain in preachers in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church is indicated as follows : 

The gain for the century is 17,413. The 287 have 
been multiplied by 62 ; average annual gain, 174. 

The beginning in a sail loft in 1766, the erection 
shortly afterward of a church costing $3,000, gave 
no more promise of ecclesiastical wealth than it did of 
growth in membership. Our 27,000 churches, worth 
$116,000,000, show a development of resources as 
wonderful as a miracle. It takes now between $23,- 
000,000 and $24,000,000 a year to carry on the work 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, to say nothing 
about its universities, colleges, and hospitals. The 
consecration of wealth is truly stupendous. Metho- 
dists have not been stingy. 

Methodism was ninth among Protestant denomina- 
tions in number of churches in 1775, and third in 
number of communicants in 1800. It soon advanced 
to first place in numbers, and easily holds this place 
at the end of the century. It was only a handful of 
corn on the top of the mountains at the beginning. 
How wonderfully has God multiplied it! 

It is pertinent to ask, How did it win its success? 

Not by immigration, as many other Churches did. 
Roman Catholics came here from Europe by hundreds 
of thousands. The Lutheran, Reformed German, and 
Presbyterian Churches gained immensely by the 
streams of immigration. But Methodists and Baptists 



Gbe Greater TKHesle^ 199 

have grown out of American soil and drawn their 
chief strength from the surrounding elements. 

Not by proselytism. We have lost hundreds of thou- 
sands of converts ; we have gained comparatively 
few in return from the denominations we have fed. 
We would like to hold all who are converted at our 
altars, but we do not feel that our losses have 
impoverished us, though they have enriched our 
neighbors. 

Not because of wealth, social prestige, ecclesiastical 
antiquity, or what an historian calls "the aristocracy 
of education and position." Other Churches had 
these ; we began with nothing but a needy field and 
earnest men, full of the Holy Ghost and flaming with 
zeal for the Gospel. 

Not by our machinery and methods. These were 
powerful, even providential, aids ; but if we ever come 
to depend on these alone Methodism will be a great 
system of enginery, with wheels, pulleys, cogs, and 
joints, ail silent and inert, because the boilers are 
cold. It was not our itinerancy, our class meet- 
ings, our Conferences, or our methods which gave us 
success. 

Our hosts have been won, by the power of the Gospel 
manifested in a real, religious experience, from the 
vast classes of unconverted persons. We have re- 
garded these, wherever we found them, as legitimate 
prey. We count it a special honor that our millions 
are trophies won for Christ from the masses of god- 
less, indifferent, unconverted persons. The late Dr. 
John Hall once said that he specially honored the 
Methodist Church for the importance it attaches to 
conversion. The power of Methodism is spiritual in 
its nature. 

I do not believe a greater boon could be asked for 
our Church in the twentieth century than that it 
might continue to regard it as its special task to call 
men and women to repentance and insist upon an ex- 
perience such as our fathers enjoyed and we profess. 

When John Wesley lay dying in 1791 
there were only four Methodist schools in 
England — three small ones at London, New- 



200 ebe Courts peopled WeelcE* 

castle-on-Tyne, and Bristol, and the Kings- 
wood School, near Bristol. The latter is still 
doing most excellent work at Bath. English 
Methodism has no university or college em- 
powered to grant degrees. It sadly lacks 
secondary schools. The Leys School at Cam- 
bridge is its nearest approach to a reputable 
American college. But it has a good share 
in the elementary education of the people. 
Colonial Methodism excels in respect to sec- 
ondary and higher education. Of American 
Methodism in general, and of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church in particular, it may be 
said, in this respect, "Many daughters have 
done virtuously, but thou excellest them all." 
Whilst some of our colleges are somewhat 
prophetic, yet the long list of our institutions 
and the honorable records they have made 
place us in the front rank of American edu- 
cators. It has been well said that "The Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church began the century 
with the ashes of one college." In 1900 it had 
56 colleges and universities, 60 academies 
and seminaries, 8 institutions exclusively for 
women, 4 missionary institutions and train- 
ing schools, 25 schools of theology, and 99 
foreign mission schools — 228 in all. These 
schools have more than 3,000 instructors, and 
about 50,000 students. The total value of 
property and endowment is about $30,000,000. 
"The Board of Education" in 1873 began its 



Gbe (Greater meelev. 201 

noble work of placing the first steps to these 
institutions very near to the feet of any young 
man or woman who has the ability to climb 
them, whether a Methodist or not. President 
Warren, of Boston University, puts our edu- 
cational work in the strongest possible light, 
and in the briefest space, thus: "The Banner 
Church in Education." 

That the Methodist Episcopal Church is in- 
deed "the banner Church in education" the 
following facts bear witness: 

From 1784, the year of its organization, to 
1884, the Methodist Episcopal Church estab- 
lished 225 classical seminaries and colleges; in 
other words, established a classical seminary 
or college every fifth month through a hun- 
dred, toilsome years. No other organization 
in human history ever made so honorable a 
record in the higher education, or was en- 
titled to celebrate so jubilant a centennial. 
If we go back through the stormy period of 
the Revolution to the first feeble beginnings 
of American Methodism in 1766, we must add 
to the above-mentioned 225 institutions be- 
longing to the Church the 58 known schools 
of more private ownership, to get the true 
aggregate of Methodist institutions for the 
higher education, namely, 283, a little more 
than one for every fifth month through the 
first 118 years of our existence as a Church, 
infancy included. 



202 Gbe !0oung peopled Wesley 

Is it not time to bury the ancient allegation 
that the early Methodists were indifferent or 
hostile to learning? If the long-standing 
slander must live on to the end of time, let us 
once in a hundred years lift it gently into the 
pillory of ecumenical publicity and placard 
it as an instructive example of immortal 
mendacity. 



CONCLUSION. 

What shall we now say of universal Meth- 
odism? 

Of the millions reached by her ministry we 
have heard. The sun never sets on her 
domain, for it is "from the rivers to the ends 
of the earth." Her people are found in every 
land and are at home in every zone. "All 
climates embrace them — the winters of Hud- 
son's Bay, and the sun-scorched plains of 
India. The Pacific waves break upon their 
shores, and peaks crowned with eternal snow 
shadow their dwellings." As she enters upon 
the twentieth century there should be no 
"wrinkle upon her brow, no haze in her vision, 
no stoop to her form, no halt to her step, 
giving signs of wasted energy or declining 
vigor;" and this will be her history if the 
anointing of her founder abides upon her. 
Her sanctuaries will be Bethesdas, and her 
prayer meetings Bethels. "She will gather in 
the street Arab, and send missionaries to 
Orient fields of toil and death." Her doc- 
trines will be as when Wesley died; her 
philanthropy as broad, her relations to other 
churches as catholic, as when he said, "The 
world is my parish." 



204 Gbe fouttG ipeople's mesley. 

Methodism is to be the friend of all and 
the enemy of none. So long as she maintains 
her power the world needs her, and she will 
not perish. So long as she believes in conver- 
sion, and effectually preaches it, she will not 
perish. So long as she believes in holiness of 
heart, and proclaims it "clearly, strongly, and 
explicitly," she will not perish. So long as she 
believes in the Holy Ghost and the baptism 
of fire, and possesses it in its fullness, she will 
not perish, but will go forth all aglow with 
the "dew of her youth bright as the sun, fair 
as the moon, and terrible as an army with 
banners." She has the true doctrine and a 
flexible economy; now let her cultivate the 
spirit and maintain the tireless energy of her 
founders, and doctrines and Church shall be 
the doctrines and Church of the future, even 
till Christ comes. 

"When he first the work begun, 

Small and feeble was his day : 
Now the word doth swiftly run ; 

Now it wins its widening way : 
More and more it spreads and grows, 

Ever mighty to prevail ; 
Sin's strongholds it now o'erthrows, 

Shakes the trembling gates of hell." 



Sept la 1901 



AUG 31 1901 



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